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a jo? 

in 

THE 

AMERICAN VOTER’S 
HANDBOOK 

A Guide to Intelligent Political Action 

STRICTLY NON-PARTISAN 

By HASBROUCK O. PALEN 


READ-THINK-ACT 

FOR 

THE NATIONAL WELFARE 


T HAT this nation, under God, shall have a new birth 
of freedom, and that government of the people, 
by the people, for the people, shall not perish from 
the earth. -ABRAHAM LINCOLN 


Poughkeepsie, New York 
THE HELPER PRESS 
1920 






Copyright 1920 
By HASBROUCK O. PALEN 



©Cl. A576579 


StP 27 1920 


1 







J-fp.ft.GcT^o -2q 


TO MY WIFE 

FLORENCE WHITE PALEN 

who has been my best helper in 
its preparation, this book is 
affectionately dedicated. 























































CONTENTS 


Page 

Foreword ........... 7 

The Voter’s Problem ........ 9 

Ideals of a Democracy ........ 11 

The Reconciliation of Government with Liberty ... 12 

The Genius of Our Government ...... 14 

Women in Politics ......... 17 

Countries in Which Women may now Vote .... 18 

Initiative, Referendum and Recall ...... 19 

As Others See L T s ......... 22 

What the Sages Say . . . ..... 30 

What of the Future? ........ 37 

The Presidential Race ........ 39 

Republican Party Platform ....... 43 

Democratic Party Platform ....... 56 

Prohibition Party Platform ....... 70 

Socialist Party Platform . . . . . . . 74 

Farmer-Labor Party Platform ...... 82 

Single Tax Party Platform ....... 87 

Declaration of Independence ....... 88 

Constitution of the United States ...... 92 

Amendments to the Constitution ...... 102 

Proclamation of the 19th Amendment ..... 105 

Electoral Vote by States ......... 109 

Presidents of the United States . . . . . . 110 

Milestone Dates in United States History . . . . Ill 

With or Without Reservations . . . . . . . 114 

League of Nations Covenant . . . . . . . 115 

Lodge Reservations . . . . . . . . . 124 

Bibliography .......... 127 




































































































. 


















































































FOREWORD 


This book is a modest endeavor to bring together in somewhat 
orderly fashion the information that an American voter should have 
at hand as a guide to intelligent political action. 

The future of this greatest of nations has no peril so great as that 
of the ignorant, or thoughtless, voter whose support at the ballot-box 
makes possible the triumph of the political demagogue, or “Boss,” in 
his quest for power and pelf. A great American thinker and philoso¬ 
pher has truly said : “It is the imbecility of the masses that invites the 
impudence of power.” 

With the fervent hope that a study of its contents may help its 
readers to rise to a higher plane of thought and action on our great 
national problems than the mere partisan voter ( tends to reach, the 
author launches this book upon its mission with a prayer that it may 
accomplish that whereunto it is sent. 

My acknowledgments are due to the publishers named below 
for permission to use extracts from their copyrighted publications, as 
indicated by footnotes in the body of the work : Ginn & Company, The 
Outlook Company, Doubleday, Page & Co. 

HASBROUCK O. PALEN. 

Poughkeepsie, N. Y. 

September 8, 1920. 

































































































































































THE VOTER’S PROBLEM 


In these momentous days of “Reconstruction” about which we 
hav % e lately heard so much from both platform and press, the task of 
the thoughtful and conscientious voter is truly herculean. 

In the bewildering mass of opinion and inspired propaganda, what 
to do, how to vote, so as to serve the best interests of one’s country and 
humanity, has become a most puzzling problem. 

Under our system of party division and government, with party 
leaders moved too often by selfish and utilitarian, rather than patriotic 
and altruistic, motives, it is difficult to find a party platform on which 
one can stand and feel that it is altogether satisfying. Unfortunately 
this sharp party division of the electorate tends to a more or less blind, 
unreasoning alignment of the great mass of voters. Dominated by a 
few forceful leaders, this struggle for ascendancy tends to obscure the 
issues vital to true democracy and good government. The party spirit 
intensified by frantic appeals to down the opposition by all means, fair 
or foul, unfits its devotees for a calm, judicial verdict on the issues at 
stake. This condition is further aggravated by a partisan press through 
which each side bends every energy to create a public opinion favor¬ 
able to its particular political creed, too often without regard to hold¬ 
ing the balance even. Truth and the right may be obscured in the 
smoke of battle furiously waged for party success and government 
control. If one wishes to know what any party really stands for, one 
must read the opposition press, as well as one’s own party organs. 
Because of these conditions, “politics” and “politician” have become 
terms of obloquy and reproach, rather than expressions of intelligent, 
patriotic devotion to the national welfare, as they should be. 

Because of the great magnitude of the stakes for which the political 
game is played by the great party organizations, the temptation to re¬ 
sort to unfair and unscrupulous methods to win, is apt to overbalance a 
proper sense of right and fair play. An evil of ominous portent in this 
country has become increasingly apparent in recent years, culminating 
this year in the defeat for nomination of a candidate who for a time 
seemed sure of success at one of the great National political conven¬ 
tions. The thinly disguised designs of “Big Business” to dominate 
the choice of presidential candidates} has finally aroused the people to 




10 


THE AMERICAN VOTER’S HANDBOOK 


a sense of the dangers to the Republic from this source. The “Money 
Powers” do not hesitate to exert great pressure in behalf of their fav¬ 
orites for high public office. 

The very pronounced reaction of public opinion that followed the 
disclosure of a huge pre-convention war-chest, bulging with a round 
half-million contribution from the head of a great mid-west industrial 
concern, is a hopeful indication that this grave menace to the purity of 
elections has been significantly scotched. The hope of the nation dies 
in an active and increasing vigilance to guard the ballot-box—the 
palladium of liberty—from all influences that do not have their source 
in unselfish, patriotic desire to uphold and advance the cause of true 
democracy. Every effort to debauch the electorate by the use of 
money, every attempt to pollute the well-spring of freedom at its foun¬ 
tain head, must be throttled without mercy whenever, or wherever, 
manifested. 

Philosophers and historians have frequently pointed out this 
menace to republican institutions. A great Irish poet has well said: 
“Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, where wealth accumulates 
and men decay.” Discerning observers are already sounding notes of 
warning that we are approaching that dangerous stage in the evolution 
of advanced civilizations where great riches in the hands of the few 
foreshadow despotism and the exploitation and oppression of the 
masses. Let us fervently hope that this fair land of ours may escape 
the perils that threaten to engulf us in the maelstrom that has swallowed 
up the great civilizations of the past, whose buried cities, monumental 
creations and artistic achievements far excel anything of our fashion¬ 
ing that will be spared by the gnawing tooth of time. 

By reason of the enormous power which they wield and the money 
or patronage which they command, party governments may become a 
potential and ominous menace to true democracy. Ours is designed to 
be a government of laws and not of men. So let us not be stampeded 
by party whips and campaign spell-binders whose partisan zeal often 
beclouds their political vision. 

The great, overshadowing question that should challenge the 
serious thought of every voter as he or she approaches the ballot-box 
is “What of the Nation’s welfare; will my vote count for it?” 


IDEALS OF A DEMOCRACY 


1 Though all the winds of doctrine were let loose to play upon the 
earth, so Truth be in the field, we do ingloriously, by licensing and pro¬ 
hibiting, to misdoubt her strength. Let her and Falsehood grapple; 
who ever knew Truth put to the worse in a free and open encounter? 

Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according 
to conscience, above all liberties. 

JOHN MILTON. 


1. Justice to All 

2. Equality before the Law 

3. Equal Opportunities to All 

4. Special Privileges to None 

5. Freedom of Speech 

6. The Right of Peaceable Assembly 

7. Freedom of The Press 

8. The People, The Sovereign Power. 

9. An Educated Electorate. 

(Liberty is incompatible with Illiteracy) 


i Extract from “Areopagitica: A Speech for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing to the Parlia¬ 
ment of England." 






THE RECONCILIATION OF GOVERNMENT 

WITH LIBERTY 


Since the earliest germination of the idea of the sacredness of per¬ 
sonal liberty, there has been a slow, but steady, growing consciousness 
of the tendency of all organized control of men’s appetites and activi¬ 
ties to crush the tender plant. This innate hesitancy of the virile, un¬ 
cultured man to subordinate his individual will to that of the mass has 
been the cause of much friction in the evolution of that ordered and 
directed community life that we call government. This rebellious 
spirit of non-conformity, so much decried, is really our only anchor to 
windward when the tyranny, or the slavish acquiescence, of the multi¬ 
tude manifests itself. From it have sprung* those heroes of humanity 
who have inspired poetic genius to record in literature the achieve¬ 
ments of the daring rebels who start revolt. Its absence would erase 
from the scroll of fame the names and deeds of the world’s martyrs. 

Strange, is it not, that mankind always crucifies its saviours, and 
leaves their merits to be disclosed by future generations. 

In the introduction to his valuable book with the above title, Prof. 
John W. Burgess, formerly Professor of Political Science and Con¬ 
stitutional Law in Columbia University, says: 

“It has been the search of the ages to find a political system, the 
travail of the age£ to construct one, in which government and liberty 
shall be reconciled, in which each of these all-comprehending means of 
civilization shall strengthen the other, and in which finally each shall 
be the fulfillment of the other. Down to the present moment this mil¬ 
lennial equilibrium has not been fully attained, and mankind always 
has been, and still is, in danger of diverging from the true path which 
leads to it, towards despotism on the one side or anarchy on the other. 
The only protection against these dangers is a correct and profound 
appreciation of the historical development of the State.” 

As the stability of government is predicated upon tlie idea of power 
to coerce the few for the good of the many, the tendency of those who 
wield the power of the State is always towards abuse of this power 
against the individual, who may protest that his liberties are being cur¬ 
tailed or infringed. Particularly is this true in times of unusual stress, 
such as the war period through which we have recently passed. Free- 



RECONCILIATION OF GOVERNMENT WITH LIBERTY 


13 


dom of speech and of the press suffer violence in many instances while 
such conditions exist. The anxiety of those in power, lest the situation 
may get the better of them, naturally tends towards a too vigorous exer¬ 
cise of the power for repression that is invoked in the interest of the pub¬ 
lic order. As the mob spirit when once aroused is difficult to control, 
prudence naturally suggests more or less strenuous methods of control, 
lest it may lead to excesses dangerous to society. A historian writing 
on the period of the French Revolution says: “The people unused to 
Liberty, were made drunken by it, and went mad. In breaking the 
gyves of feudalism they broke every other restraint, and wrecked so¬ 
ciety in all its forms.” 

The curtailment of the liberty of the individual during such periods 
of stress tends towards what may justly be complained of as an exercise 
of tyranny in many cases. But the threatened overthrow of orderly 
government at such times goes far toward justification of vigorous 
methods of control, for fear that a leaning towards leniency may en¬ 
courage bold spirits among the protestants to perilous excesses, danger¬ 
ous to the social order. Therefore, it behooves us as an order-loving 
people to temper our resentment during such periods by an exercise of 
that charity towards our chosen rulers that “suffereth long and is kind,” 
until such time as the storm of passion may gradually subside, when 
cooler judgments will again prevail. 

The reconciliation of government with liberty in a democracy like 
ours will always tax to the uttermost the power of self-control in the 
individuals who make up the aggregate of society, for whose welfare 
the powers we voluntarily relinquish to the State are exercised. Fail¬ 
ure to exercise this power of self-control for the good of the many in 
times of unusual stress may lead to anarchy and unstable conditions 
worse than the ills of which we may often justly complain. 

Judge Cooley in an address to the South Carolina Bar Associa¬ 
tion, December, 1886, says: “The liberty-loving people of every coun¬ 
try take courage from American freedom, and find augury of better 
days for themselves from American prosperity. But America is not 
so much an example in her liberty as in the covenanted and enduring 
securities which are intended to prevent liberty degenerating into 
license, and to establish a feeling of trust and repose under a beneficent 
government, whose excellence, so obvious in its freedom, is still more 
conspicuous in its careful provision for permanence and stability.” 


THE GENIUS OF OUR GOVERNMENT 


Since the time of Aristotle the world has been familiar with his 
classification of governments as Monarchical or Autocratic, Aristocratic, 
and Democratic. But the old picture of the absolute monarch, or Auto¬ 
crat, has lost its standing in the modern political world. With the re¬ 
cent crumbling of three great European monarchies, the rule of the 
people by the “Divine right of Kings” has practically vanished from 
the earth. Indeed, the rumblings that are now reaching us from the 
far side of the Pacific suggest that the last stronghold of despotic rule 
is now under siege with significant breaches already made in its be¬ 
leaguered walls. -“Vox populi, vox Dei” now echoes around the world 
as never before. The Divinity that once did hedge a King has lost its 
magic potency to charm and exploit the erstwhile loyal and submissive 
multitude. The reclamation of sovereignty by the peoples of the world 
is now in full swing. The just powers of government in all enlight¬ 
ened lands must henceforth be based upon “The consent of the gov¬ 
erned,” as proclaimed in our immortal Declaration of Independence. 

The three main things that one should study in order to understand 
the genius, or characteristic spirit, of our government and its institu¬ 
tions are: (1) its constitutional framework, (2) the methods by which 
it is operated, and (3) the forces that move it and direct its course. 

Our governmental institutions have a character and an individu¬ 
ality all their own. They constitute a symmetrical whole, and in their 
workings have challeneged the interest and attention of students of 
government throughout the world. All of the democracies, or consti¬ 
tutional governments, that have sprung up since ours began have been 
more or less closely modelled after it. The strong hold it has acquired 
upon the affections of oppressed peoples everywhere was strikingly 
evidenced by the rapt interest with which those who came to the Paris 
Peace Conference hung upon the words of our President, whdi was 
looked up to as the Moses who was to lead them out of bondage to the 
promised land of liberty. 

Two guiding principles distinguish the more special features that 
are peculiar to American government. The first of these is the sov¬ 
ereignty of the people, which is expressed in the supreme law of the 
land—the Constitution—and which cannot be altered, or departed from 
in the least without a direct mandate from the people. Its reservation 



THE GENIUS OF OUR GOVERNMENT 


15 


to the States and the people of all powers not specifically delegated 
makes it possible for the people to shape their destiny as tinder no other 
form of government yet devised by man. 

The second guiding principle, a corollary of the first, consists in 
the carefully contrived safeguards against too much power being 
lodged in any one of the three co-ordinate departments of the govern¬ 
ment,—legislative* executive, or judicial. Purely democratic admin¬ 
istration of governmental affairs is, of course, impossible in a country 
with so large a population as ours. We must necessarily act through 
chosen representatives whose liberties of action are closely confined 
within restricted limits. Each of the three departments of government 
is made a “jealous observer and restrainer of the others,” and abuses 
of delegated power are prevented by trusting each agent as little as 
possible. 

Furthermore, the sanctity of the separate states that compose the 
Union is scrupulously protected against violation by the national gov¬ 
ernment. Likewise, the individual citizen’s prerogatives have not been 
overlooked, but are carefully guarded in the fundamental law. 

It is quite interesting* to note that in the interim between the ratifi¬ 
cation of the Constitution by the several States during the years 1787, 
1788, and 1789, and the first session of the First Congress, there was 
much discussion in regard to the lack of specific and exact definition of 
the sacred rights of freemen in the proposed fundamental law of the 
new Union. As 1 a result of this, at the very first session of the Con¬ 
gress, which was convened in New York on March 4, 1789, the first ten 
amendments to the Constitution were proposed and submitted to the 
States for ratification. 

If you have not carefully read these ten amendments, do so without 
further delay. They will probably give you a more exalted idea of your 
individual importance as an atom in the great mass we call “The Peo¬ 
ple” in this country, than you have been wont to entertain. 

The ingeniously planned system of “Checks and balances” pro¬ 
vided in our constitution for regulating the workings of the Executive, 
Legislative and Judicial departments of the government, has given en¬ 
during fame to those far-seeing, constructive “Architects of Freedom” 
who wrought out its specifications, in order that it might guarantee the 
inalienable rights of man and the liberties of the people, without sacri¬ 
ficing orderly and stable government. Yet, notwithstanding its won¬ 
derful breadth and elastic qualities of adaptation to the changing con¬ 
ditions of our national growth and economic development, the monu- 


16 


THE AMERICAN VOTER’S HANDBOOK 


mental edifice has had to undergo repairs, or Amendments, as the great 
hand of time has moved forward on the dial of the centuries. 

The ratification of the seventeenth (Election of U. S. Senators by 
popular vote) and nineteenth (Woman Suffrage) Amendments to the 
Constitution by the required two-thirds of the States are unmistakable 
evidences of the growing conviction of the people that reverence for 
our Great Charter of Government must not be too much invoked, if 
progress towards the higher ideals of human achievement is not to be 
halted. 

While the sentiment, or feeling, that basic changes in our funda¬ 
mental framework of government should not be hastily entertained, 
or precipitately acted upon, as being hazardous to the stability of gov¬ 
ernment, yet this steadying conservatism and reverential regard for 
the things of the past must not bar the way to future progress. Upward 
and onward are the watchwords of progress in a democracy like ours. 
Changing conditions in the evolutionary development of the nation de¬ 
mand that worship of the older forms of thought and action must not 
obscure the light ahead towards which our Ship of State is headed. 

The just powers of government in a democracy such as ours are 
delegated powers. They reside in the accumulation of the wills of the 
masses, transferred for the time being, either avowedly or tacitly, to 
the rulers chosen by the masses. It follows, therefore, that the consent 
of the governed, from which the just powers of government are de¬ 
rived, may be withdrawn whenever the people determine that their 
chosen rulers are overstepping the boundaries of this delegated power. 

Some of the means by which this reservation of power by the peo¬ 
ple may be exercised are discussed in a later chapter, entitled, “Initia¬ 
tive, Referendum and Recall.” 


WOMEN IN POLITICS 


Woman’s rightful claim, so long contested, that democracy’s ideal 
of “Justice to All,” implies full rights of citizenship to man’s better half, 
has finally been allowed by haughty man. 

Readers of the popular magazines of the day will recall that one 
of these heavily freighted purveyors of alluring appeals that deplete 
the purse of the American family for a multitude of costly superfluities 
from the many “cereal and sawdust near-foods” to the luxurious auto¬ 
mobile, not long since ran a series of articles in which a man and a 
woman were selected from among its contributors to play up the foibles 
of the two sexes under the captions: “Oh, Well, You Know How 
Women Are!” and “Isn’t That Just Like a Man!” This battle of wits 
suggested to the writer the following thoughts as to the mental and 
moral powers and limitations of the sexes. Viewed from the psycho¬ 
logical standpoint the chief difference between a man’s way and a 
woman’s way of considering the momentous questions of life seems to 
lie in the different attitudes of mind in which they approach the solu¬ 
tion of the difficulties to be overcome. 

Man says: “Is the thing feasible? Is it practicable? Is it ex¬ 
pedient?” Woman compasses the whole vexed situation with one 
sweeping*, all-inclusive query: “Is the thing right ?” Man twists and 
turns and fences with numerous straw-men of his own creation, while 
woman advances with undaunted front to crush the monster that bars 
the way of righteousness. Humiliated by his recognition of woman’s 
superiority over him in meeting moral issues, man salves his feelings 
and eases his conscience by saying: “O, yes; woman doesn’t reason 
about these things; she intuitively jumps to a conclusion. Of course, 
sometimes she’s right, but, etc., etc., ad ‘infinitum.” While maii is 
floundering in a morass of doubt and expediency, woman has reached 
the solid ground of right and justice. Man debates. Woman decides. 
Is the liquor traffic a menace to the home and society? Man says: 
“We’ll ‘scotch the snake’—license it under restrictions.” Woman says : 
“Kill the viper—prohibit the thing.” Is the question one of social 
purity ? Man says : “O, the boy must ‘sow his wild oats’ you know, be¬ 
fore he settles down.” Woman says: “Away with a double standard 
of sex morality! Virginity demands its counterpart in an unsoiled 



18 


THE AMERICAN VOTER’S HANDBOOK 


mate.” Man fashions creeds and rituals. Woman makes the Church a 
spiritual and social power. Man disputes with Christ in the temple. 
Woman offers worship and service. Man entangles himself in a web of 
logic and dialectics. Woman without seeming to reason the thing out, 
(so man says) reaches a right conclusion of the matter. Man goes 
“ ’Round by Robin Hood’s barn.” Woman cuts straight across lots. 

And so we venture to predict that woman’s entrance into the arena 
of politics promises an acceleration of needed reforms in municipal, 
state and national government. Woman is the natural teacher of the 
young. It would seem a reasonable forecast that her active participa¬ 
tion in governmental affairs will make for an earlier bending of the 
twig in the direction of an interest in politics. Thus the later inclina¬ 
tion of the embryo voter may be towards a more acute civic sense, and 
a greater feeling of individual responsibility for good government than 
many of our present voters manifest. 

The Philadelphia North American in editorially discussing the 
women’s vote in the coming election says : “The participation of women 
will bring* no upheaval in politics. Their mental processes are keener, 
[than men’s] and their faculty of intuition is superior, but they will 
cause no violent change.” The partisan press of both of the major 
political parties shows unmistakable solicitude as to how these more 
than twenty-five millions of voters are going to align themselves in 
this quadrennial contest. Will they “cut no figure” in the ultimate re¬ 
sult by simply following the lead of their men folks, as many of these 

editors are inclined to think? Or will they-? Heaven forbid! 

For how will the “dopesters” be able to forecast the result, if they 
should-? 


COUNTRIES IN WHICH WOMEN MAY NOW VOTE 


Isle of Man.1881 

New Zealand .1893 

Australia .1902 

Finland .1906 

Norway .1907 

Denmark .1915 

Mexico .1917 

Russia .1917 

Poland .1918 

Ireland..1918 

Scotland .1918 

Wales .1918 

Austria .1918 


Canada .1918 

Czecho-Slovakia .1918 

Hungary .1918 

Germany .1918 

England..1918 

Holland .1919 

Belgium .1919 

British East Africa.1919 

Rhodesia .1919 

Luxembourg .1919 

Iceland.1919 

Sweden .1919 

United States.1920 






























INITIATIVE, REFERENDUM AND RECALL 


In a democracy such as ours, the powers of the State are founded 
upon the conditional transfer of the accumulated wills of the people to 
their chosen rulers. It follows, therefore, that the delegated power to 
govern exists only on condition that the will of the people be properly 
carried out by their duly elected representatives. This reservation of 
political power, prudently withheld by the people, has during the last 
three decades been incorporated into the organic law, or constitutions, 
of quite a number of the States under the designation of the Initiative, 
Referendum and Recall, terms and procedure borrowed from the 
sturdy little Swiss Republic that has stood for more than six hundred 
years like an island in a sea of monarchy, and where these measures 
for safeguarding the sovereign power of the people have long been in 
vogue. 

The Referendum is a condition precedent to the taking effect of a 
law duly enacted by the legislature; while the Initiative is manifestly 
a condition precedent to the Referendum. Both measures reserve to 
the sovereign people the powers that unrestrained representative gov¬ 
ernment has frequently warned us may be exercised against the public 
weal. 

The Recall is a provision for the removal of a duly elected, or ap¬ 
pointed, public official by a vote of the people, for malfeasance in office, 
or failure to execute their will as their representative. 

The application of the Referendum method of control in reference 
to questions of local taxation and the expenditure of public funds in 
municipalities has become almost general in the States during recent 
years. It has also been invoked in numerous instances on the ques¬ 
tion of prohibiting the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors by 
legislatures whose members have by this means been responsive to the 
will of the people, while at the same time evading all personal respon¬ 
sibility in the settlement of this vexatious question, now happily re¬ 
moved from the arena of discussion by the Eighteenth Amendment to 
the Constitution of the United States. It will thus be seen that this 
method of expression of the popular will is now far from being an in¬ 
novation with the American people. 

South Dakota was the pioneer state in the inauguration of this 
method of imbuing its public officials with a lively sense of their direct 



20 


THE AMERICAN VOTER’S HANDBOOK 


responsibilities to their constituents. In 1898 their State Constitution 
was amended as follows: “The people expressly reserve to themselves 
the right to propose measures, which measures the legislature shall 
enact and submit to a vote of the electors of the state.” Here we have 
the right of Initiative and Referendum combined. In this forward- 
looking State Charter the people further reserve to themselves the 
right “to require that any laws which the legislature may have enacted 
shall be submitted to a vote of the electors of the State before going 
into effect, except such laws as may be necessary for the immediate 
preservation of the public peace, health or safety, support of the State 
government and its existing public institutions” (the Referendum here 
pure and simple). This progressive instrument of government further 
provides that the people may initiate laws for submission to popular 
vote upon the petition of five per cent, of the whole number of “quali¬ 
fied electors of the State.” They may also require a vote upon any law 
which has already been passed by their representatives in the legisla¬ 
ture, with the exceptions noted above, upon the request of a similar 
proportion of the electorate. From this it will be seen that their chief 
state executive, the Governor, ceases longer to exercise the'power of 
veto over such laws as may be asked for by the people upon their own 
initiative. Here we have the Initiative right pure and simple. 

Oklahoma placed these safeguards of liberty in her Constitution 
at the beginning of her statehood. The power of Recall was adopted by 
the City of Los Angeles, California, in 1902, and has since spread to 
many other municipalities, mainly as an accessory of local commission 
government. 

President Taft’s veto of the bill to admit Arizona because its pro¬ 
posed constitution permitted the recall of judges of the courts aroused 
national interest. After its admission to the Union, Arizona re-inserted 
the judicial recall in her constitution. 

Debate for and against reserving this right to the people has been 
vigorous and voluminous. Its opponents contend that it undermines 
representative government, breeds petty strife and personal quarrel in 
the body politic and disturbs'business conditions. Its advocates on the 
other hand urge that it gives the people immediate and adequate power 
to correct gross abuses, instills in public officials a keener sense of 
public duty and responsibility, and provides an orderly, efficient process 
of popular discipline. 

President Roosevelt proposed a popular referendum for the “Re¬ 
call of Judicial Decisions” in State Courts of last resort, which the 


INITIATIVE, REFERENDUM AND RECALL 


21 


State of Colorado has put into practice. “When the legislature and 
the court differ/’ says Roosevelt, “the people, whose agents they are, 
should have the right to decide between them.” Advocates of the recall 
of judges and Court decisions claim that the Courts have sometimes 
assumed political and legislative power, shown themselves out of touch 
with the people, and have in some cases aroused suspicion that they 
have become the “tools of special privilege/' Opponents of the recall 
idea uphold the independence of the judiciary and the sacredness of 
written Constitutions not too easily susceptible of amendment. They 
stand for traditional American reverence for Courts and Constitutions. 
Advocates of the Initiative, Referendum and Recall close the debate by 
asserting that, as “all governments instituted among men derive their 
just powers from the consent of the governed,” the stream cannot rise 
above its source. 

As yet our National Constitution does not reserve this power to 
the people, except by “impeachment for and conviction of treason, 
bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.” 


AS OTHERS SEE US 


In the following extracts some of the weaker links in the anchor 
chain of our Ship of State are pointed out. 

Alexis DeTocqueville of France and 1 James Bryce of England are 
the most searching and incisive, and at the same time the most sympa¬ 
thetic, critics that have discussed at such length both the strong and 
the weak features of a democracy, particularly as exemplified in the 
practical workings of constitutional government in the United States. 
Dr. H. von Holst is, perhaps, our most unsparing critic. He aims sev¬ 
eral well-directed shafts at the most vulnerable spots in our armor. The 
eminent Japanese lawyer, Mr. Masuji Miyakawa, a more recent observ¬ 
er who has spent several years in this country as an interested student 
of its institutions, has also added to the literature of the discussion. So 
we have here a sort of kaleidoscopic picture of ourselves from the view¬ 
points of four different nationalities. 

1 We regret that for some reason, unexplained, the publishers of “The American Com¬ 
monwealth” have refused us permission to quote extracts from Mr. Bryce’s valuable work, 
with proper credit. We, therefore, refer our readers to the following Chapters of this work 
that contain comment and criticism that we should have incorporated m this Chapter had not 
our request to quote been denied, as above stated: Chapters I, XVI, XXVI, LXXII, 
LXXXIV, LXXXV, 1910 edition. 


1 THE TYRANNY OF THE MAJORITY 

I hold it to be an impious and detestable maxim that, politically 
speaking, the people have a right to do anything; and yet I have as¬ 
serted that all authority originates in the will of the majority. Am I 
then in contradiction with myself ? 

A general law, which bears the name of justice, has been made 
and sanctioned, not only by a majority of this or that people, but by a 
majority of mankind. The rights of every people are therefore confined 
within the limits of what is just. A nation may be considered as a 
jury which is empowered to represent society at large, and to apply 
justice, which is its law. Ought such a jury, which represents society, 
to have more power than the society itself, whose laws it executes? 

When I refuse to obey an unjust law, I do not contest the right of 
the majority to command, but I simply appeal from the sovereignty of 
the people to the sovereignty of mankind. Some have not feared to 
assert that a people can never outstep the boundaries of justice and 


1 Extracts from DeTocqueville’s “Democracy in America.” 






AS OTHERS SEE US 


23 


reason in those affairs which are peculiarly its own; and that conse¬ 
quently full power may be given to the majority by which they are 
represented. But this is the language of a slave. 

A majority taken collectively is only an individual whose opinions, 
and frequently whose interests, are opposed to those of another indi¬ 
vidual who is styled a minority. If it be admitted that a man possess¬ 
ing absolute power may misuse that power by wronging his adversaries, 
why should not a majority be liable to the same reproach ? Men do not 
change their characters by uniting with each other; nor does their pa¬ 
tience in the presence of obstacles increase with their strength. For my 
part I cannot believe it. The power to do everything, which I should 
refuse to one of my equals, I will never grant to any number of them. 

I do not think that, for the sake of preserving liberty, it is possible 
to combine several principles in the same government so as really to 
oppose them to one another. The form of government which is usually 
termed mixed has always appeared to me a mere chimera. Accurately 
speaking, there is no such thing as a mixed government , in the sense 
usually given to that word, because in all communities some one princi¬ 
ple of action may be discovered which preponderates over the others. 
England in the last century, which has been especially cited as an ex¬ 
ample of this sort of government, was essentially an aristocratic 
state, although it comprised some great elements of democracy; for 
the laws and customs of the country were such that the aristocracy 
could not but preponderate in the long run, and direct public affairs 
according to its own will. The error arose from seeing the interests 
of the nobles perpetually contending with those of the people, without 
considering the issue of the contest, which was really the important 
point. When a community actually has a mixed government,—that 
is to say, when it is equally divided between adverse principles,—it 

must either experience a revolution, or fall into anarchy. 

< 

I am therefore of opinion that social power superior to all others 
must always be placed somewhere. But I think that liberty is endan¬ 
gered when this power finds no obstacle which can retard its course, 
and give it time to moderate its own vehemence. 

Unlimited power is in itself a bad and dangerous thing. Human 
beings are not competent to exercise it with discretion. God alone 
can be omnipotent, because His wisdom and His justice are always 
equal to His power. There is no power on earth so worthy of honor in 
itself, or clothed with rights so sacred, that I would admit its uncon¬ 
trolled and all-predominant authority. When I see that the right and 


24 


THE AMERICAN VOTER’S HANDBOOK 


the means of absolute command are conferred on any power what¬ 
ever, be it called a people or a king, an aristocracy or a democracy, a 
monarchy or a republic, I say there is the germ of tyranny, and I seek 
to live elsewhere, under other laws. 

In my opinion the main evil of the present democratic institutions 
of the United States does not arise, as is often asserted in Europe, from 
their weakness, but from their irresistible strength. I am not so 
much alarmed at the excessive liberty which reigns in that country, 
as at the inadequate securities which one finds there against tyranny. 

When an individual or a party is wronged in the United States, to 
whom can he apply for redress? If to public opinion, public opinion 
constitutes the majority; if to the legislature, it represents the major¬ 
ity, and implicitly obeys it; if to the executive power, it is appointed 
by the mapority, and serves as a passive tool in its hands. The public 
force consists of the majority under arms; the jury is the majority in¬ 
vested with the right of hearing judicial cases; and, in certain states, 

even the judges are elected by the majority. However iniquitous or 
absurd the measure of which you complain, you must submit to it as 

well as you can. 

If, on the other hand, a legislative power could be so constituted 
as to represent the majority without necessarily being the slave of its 
passions, an executive so as to retain a proper share of authority, and a 
judiciary so as to remain independent of the other two powers, a gov¬ 
ernment would be formed which would still be democratic, without 
incurring hardly any risk of tyranny. 

I do not say that there is a frequent use of tyranny in America at 
the present day; but I maintain that there is no sure barrier against it, 
and that the causes which mitigate the government there are to be 
found in the circumstances and the manners of the country, more than 
in its laws. 

A distinction must be drawn between tyranny and arbitrary power. 
Tyranny may.be exercised by means of the law itself, and in that case 
it is not arbitrary; arbitrary power may be exercised for the public 
good, in which case it is not tyrannical. Tyranny usually employs ar¬ 
bitrary means, but, if necessary, it can do without them. 

In the United States the omnipotence of the majority which is 
favorable to the legal despotism of the legislature, likewise favors the 
arbitrary authority of the magistrate. The majority has absolute 
power both to make the law and to watch over its execution; and as 
it has equal authority over those who are in power, and the community 
at large, it considers public officers as its passive agents, and readily 


AS OTHERS SEE US 


25 


confides to them the task of carrying out its designs. The details of 
their office and the privileges which they are to enjoy are rarely defined 
beforehand. It treats them as a master does his servants, since they 
are always at work in his sight, and he can direct or reprimand them at 
any instant. 

In general, the American functionaries are far more independent 
within the sphere which is prescribed to them than are the French civil 
officers. Sometimes, even, they are allowed by the popular authority 
to exceed those bounds; and as they are protected by the opinion, and 
backed by the power, of the majority, they dare do things which even 
a European, accustomed as he is to arbitrary power, is astonished at. 
By this means habits are formed in the heart of a free country which 

may some day prove fatal to its liberties.I know of no country in 

which there is so little independence of mind and real freedom of dis¬ 
cussion as in America. In any constitutional state in Europe every 
sort of religious and political theory may be freely preached and dis¬ 
seminated ; for there is no country in Europe so subdued by any single 
authority, as not to protect the man who raises his voice in the cause 
of truth from the consequences of his hardihood. If he is unfortunate 
enough to live under an absolute government, the people are often upon 
his side; if he inhabits a free country, he can, if necessary, find a shelter 
behind the throne. The aristocratic part of society supports him in 
some countries, and the democracy in others. But in a nation where 
democratic institutions exist, organized like those of the United States, 
there is but one authority, one element of strength and success, with 
nothing beyond it. 

In America, the majority raises formidable barriers around the 
liberty of opinion. Within these barriers an author may write what he 
pleases, but woe to him if he goes beyond them. Not that he is in 
danger of an auto-da-fe, but he is exposed to continued obloquy and 
persecution. His political career is closed forever, since he has offend¬ 
ed the only authority which is able to open it. Every sort of com¬ 
pensation, even that of celebrity, is refused to him. Before publishing 
his opinions, he imagined that he held them in common with others; 
but no sooner has he declared them, than he is loudly censured by his 
opponents, whilst those who think like him, without having the cour¬ 
age to speak out, abandon him in silence. He yields at length, over¬ 
come by the daily effort which he has to make, and subsides into silence, 
as if he felt remorse for having spoken the truth. 

Fetters and headsmen were the coarse instruments which tyranny 
formerly employed, but the civilization of our age has perfected des- 



26 


THE AMERICAN VOTER’S HANDBOOK 


potism itself, though it seemed to have nothing to learn. Monarchs 
had, so to speak, materialized oppression. The democratic republics 
of the present day have rendered it as entirely an affair of the mind, as 
the will which it is intended to coerce. Under the absolute sway of 
one man the body was attacked in order to subdue the soul; but the 
soul escaped the blows which were directed against it, and rose proudly 
superior. Such is not the course adopted by tyranny in democratic re¬ 
publics. There the body is left free, and the soul is enslaved. The 
master no longer says, “You shall think as I do, or you shall die." 
But he says, 1 2 “You are free to think differently from me, and to retain 
your life, your property and all that you possess; but you are hence¬ 
forth a stranger among your people. You may retain your civil rights, 
but they will be useless to you, for you will never be chosen by your 
fellow-citizens, if you solicit their votes; and they will affect to scorn 
you, if you ask for their esteem. You will remain among men, but you 
will be deprived of the rights of mankind. Your fellow creatures will 
shun you like an impure being; and even those who believe in your 
innocence will abandon you, lest they should be shunned in their turn. 
Go in peace! I have given you your life, but it is an existence worse 

than death.”.If ever the free institutions of America are destroyed 

that event may be attributed to the omnipotence of the majority, which 
may at some future time urge the minorities to desperation, and oblige 
them to have recourse to physical force. Anarchy will then be the re¬ 
sult, but it will have been brought about by despotism. 

ALEXIS DeTOCQUEVILLE. 

2 CANONIZING THE CONSTITUTION 
The origin of the Constitution and the first years in which it did 
so much for the good of the people by producing a radical change in 
the unhappy situation of affairs after the war, were contemporaneous 
with the adoption or invention of political or party principles. The 
political reasoning of the school which gave tone to the time started 
out with the assumption that the individual was a monad floating 
through the universe and governed by independent laws inherent in 
himself, not a member of a given society into which he was born. The 
consequence was that certain principles resulting from this mode of 
reasoning were substituted for actual facts, as a foundation for the 
social and economic conditions which it was sought to bring about. As 

1 The reader can doubtless call to mind a number of men of promise in our public life in re¬ 
cent years, who have thus been crushed by the tyranny of the majority in creating adverse 
public opinion.—H. O. P. 

2 Extracts from “The Constitutional and Political History of the United States,” by Dr. 
H. von Holst. 





AS OTHERS SEE US 


27 


the basis of these principles was discovered in human nature, they were 
necessarily declared to be unchangeable and applicable to all times and 
to every people. Their tendency, therefore, was, on the one hand, to 
destroy the existing state of things; for any title not in harmony with 
these principles was a fraud and a usurpation, and was denounced as a 
weak and damnable species of commerce with the injustice of a thou¬ 
sand years. But on the other hand, to adopt this philosophy would be 
to declare stagnation the natural condition of all social and political 
order. If the principles were to be unchangeable, incapable of refine¬ 
ment and progress, there would be no possibility of development; for 
principles are only the quintessence of the aggregate intellectual and 
moral knowledge of a people or of the age, reduced to the simplest 
formula. 

We have already seen that even in America, at the outbreak of the 
Revolution, the soil was prepared for a system of politics based on ab¬ 
solute principles. The French Revolution caused the seed to ger¬ 
minate here more rapidly and luxuriantly than in any other part of the 
western civilized world. 

In political questions of a concrete nature, the Americans are on 
the average more competent judges than any people on the Continent 
of Europe. The political institutions of the country, its social and es¬ 
pecially its economic relations, educate them from the cradle to inde¬ 
pendent thought on all questions involving material interests, and en¬ 
courage them to summon their whole intellectual strength for their 
solution. But in the wearing struggles of daily life new problems of 
this character continually arise, and almost exhaust their intellectual 
strength. Their energy of mind is not in consequence great enough to 
give much depth to their thoughts on political problems of a general 
nature. The disposition towards generalization is sufficiently devel¬ 
oped, but their observations are neither various, nor long-, nor reliable 
enough to warrant inductions of any real value. Half-true and vague 
ideas are therefore raised by them to the dignity of unimpeachable 
principles. These are appealed to on every occasion, so they rapidly 
rise to the dignity of sovereign laws. And the more they assume this 
character, the stronger does the conviction become rooted that they 
are the stars by which the Ship of State should be steered. The fur¬ 
ther the idea of democracy was pushed, first in theory and then in prac¬ 
tice, the more did the doctrine of the equality of all men become per¬ 
verted in the minds of the masses into the equal capacity of all men to 
decide on political questions of every kind. The principle of mere 
numbers gained ground. The political philosophy of the masses was 




28 THE AMERICAN VOTER’S HANDBOOK 

comprised in these vague maxims. They clung to them with all the 
self-complacent obstinacy of the lowest and most numerous body of the 
working classes. They were nowhere more sensitive than here. Who¬ 
ever desired their favor dared not touch this idol of theiis, and could 
scarcely ignore it unpunished. The fetish had been raised up foi the 
worship of the masses by their leaders, and the masses in turn com¬ 
pelled their leaders to fall down and adore it. Under no form of gov¬ 
ernment is it so dangerous to erect a political idol as in a democratic 
republic; for once erected, it is the political sin against the Holy Spirit 
to lay hands upon it. 

It was necessary that the Constitution should be highly elas¬ 
tic in its nature. Its terms must be susceptible of great exten¬ 
sion or contraction of meaning, according to the want of the mo¬ 
ment. A more brittle bond would be infallibly broken. This is not a 
matter of speculation. I he whole history of the United States, from 

1789 to 1861, demonstrates it.Were it not that the letter of the 

Constitution permitted all parties to verge upon the actual dissolution of 
the Union, without feeling themselves responsible for a bleach of the 
Constitution, it is likely that long before 1861, a serious attempt in that 

direction would have been made.Calhoun and his disciples were 

not the authors of the doctrine of nullification and secession. That 
question is as old as the Constitution itself, and has always been a living 
one, even when it has not been one of life and death. Its roots lay in 
the actual circumstances of the time, and the Constitution was the 
living expression of these actual circumstances. 

H. VON HOLST. 


1 THE PEOPLE AND THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
This prominent term, the people, in the American acceptation, is 
entirely different from the term as used in European and Asiatic coun¬ 
tries. This distinct and different meaning is unknown to doctors of 
laws in these countries, no matter how thoroughly versed they may be 
in the principles of law, unless they receive the significance of the term 
in the true American acceptation. By the expression, the people of 
the United States, is meant, from the American standpoint, the whole 
mass of both male and female citizens, which constitutes the political 
unit. The American people are identified as a political entity, an arti¬ 
ficial being, and are not a mere majority of the persons composing so¬ 
ciety, or those having the right to vote. The people are the very 
creator of the whole fabric of the American Government, and the mo- 


1 Extracts from “Powers of the American People,” by Masuji Miyakawa. 







AS OTHERS SEE US 


29 


tive god that rules the American universe, whom both individuals and 
groups of individuals are bound to obey. When the people once deter¬ 
mine a thing there is no appeal from it. They are above the Consti¬ 
tution. 

There is, however, one thing which is revered, sanctified and rever¬ 
enced as the symbol of American sovereignty and as a real emblem of 
the people, viz., the flag of Stars and Stripes. The nature of the free 
institutions of America demands that this point be made emphatic. 
Should any American, naturalized, or natural born, not take pride in 
the flag, it points to the conclusion that he has no business or right to 
receive protection at the expense of the people. 

'The Americans believe, by reason of their objective religion, that 
there is in woman an immortal soul as precious as the soul of man. 
They also believe that there are certain functions, offices and glories 
for which woman is better fitted than man. The Americans, who con¬ 
stitute free institutions, are thus impelled to have more religious en¬ 
thusiasm, philanthropy and morality. And, as the groundwork on 
which free institutions rest, they say that women are born with sur¬ 
passing genius, virtue and intelligence. They say that whatever affects 
the habits, opinions, or conditions of woman affects the very founda¬ 
tions of social and political communities. The American woman, there¬ 
fore, accepts this high responsibility and holds fast the share of her re¬ 
sulting rights under it. 

The American is personally interested in enforcing obedience of 
the whole community to the law, for the natural reason that the law 

has originated by his own authority.In America the opinion of 

the people is the opinion of the American sovereign, not the opinion 
voiced by the officials, for theirs is but the opinion of servants. The 
public press in America will tear even the Presidential opinion into 
pieces. This is not such a great absurdity as the minds of some might 
think. In some despotic nations the King’s message is the message of 
the nation, but he who takes the message of the President of the United 
States as the message of the nation shows a mistaken idea of the public 
spirit of America. 

Their very devotion to liberty and equality, therefore, evolves an 
unwritten code of morals founded only upon principles of mutual in¬ 
terest, sympathy and assistance. The more the Americans strive for 
the condition of equality, the more they become ready to be of service 
to one another—each being influenced by a reciprocal disposition to 
oblige the other. 


MASUJI MIYAKAWA. 







I 


WHAT THE SAGES SAY 

0 


1 Man as a physical being is, like other bodies, governed by in¬ 
variable laws. As an intelligent being he incessantly transgresses the 
laws established by God, and changes those which he himself has es¬ 
tablished. He is left to his own direction, though he is a limited being- 
subject, like all finite intelligences, to ignorance and error. Even the 
imperfect knowledge he has he loses as a sensible creature, and is hur¬ 
ried away by a thousand impetuous passions. Such a being might 
every instant forget his Creator. God has, therefore, reminded him of 
his duty by the laws of religion. Such a being is liable every moment 
to forget himself; philosophy has provided against this by the laws 
of morality. Formed to live in society, he might*forget his fellow 
creatures; legislators have therefore by political and civil laws con¬ 
fined him to his duty. 

/ MONTESQUIEU. 


2 This government, the offspring of your own choice, uninfluenced 
and unawed, adopted upon full investigation and mature deliberation, 
completely free in its principles, in the distribution of its powers, 
uniting security with energy, and containing within itself a provision 
for its own amendment, has a just claim to your confidence and your 
support. Respect for its authority, compliance with its laws, acquies¬ 
cence in its measures, are duties enjoined by the fundamental maxims 
of true Liberty. The basis of our political systems is the rights of the 
people to make and to alter their constitutions of government. But 
the constitution which at any time exists, till changed by an explicit 
and authentic act of the! whole people, is sacredly obligatory upon all. 
The very idea of the power and the right of the people to establish gov¬ 
ernment presupposes the duty of every individual to obey the estab¬ 
lished government. 

GEORGE WASHINGTON. 


3 This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who 
inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing govern¬ 
ment, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or 

1 From Montesquieu’s “The Spirit of Laws.” 

2 From President Washington’s Farewell Address to the People of the United States, Sept 
17, 1796. 

3 From President Lincoln’s first inaugural address, March 4 , 1861. 






WHAT THE SAGES SAY 31 

their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it.Why 


should there not be a patient confidence in the ultimate justice of the 
people? Is there any better or equal hope in the world? 

ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

The people are the rightful masters of both congresses and courts, 
not to overthrow the constitution, but to overthrow the men who 
pervert it. 

ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

1 For a long time this country of ours has lacked one of the institu¬ 
tions which freemen have always and everywhere held fundamental. 
For a long time there has been no sufficient opportunity of counsel 
among the people; no place and method of talk, of exchange of opin¬ 
ion, of parley. Communities have outgrown the folk-moot and the 
town-meeting. Congress in accordance with the genius of the land, 
which asks for action and is impatient of words,—Congress has become 
an institution which does its work in the privacy of committee rooms 
and not on the floor of the chamber; a body that makes laws,—a legis¬ 
lature ; not a body that debates,—not a parliament. 

Party conventions afford little or no opportunity for discussion ; 
platforms are privately manufactured, and adopted with a whoop. It 
is partly because citizens have foregone the taking of counsel together 
that the unholy alliances of Bosses and Big Business have been able 
to assume to govern us. I conceive it to be one of the needs of the hour 
to restore the processes of common counsel, and to substitute them for 
the processes of private arrangement which now determine the policies 
of cities, states and nation. We must learn, we freemen, to meet as our 
fathers did, somehow, somewhere for consultation. There must be dis¬ 
cussion and debate, in which all freely participate. It must be candid 
debate, and it must have for its honest purpose the clearing up of ques¬ 
tions and the establishing of the truth. Too much political discussion 
is not to honest purpose, but only for the confounding of an oppo¬ 
nent.It is a misfortune that attends the party system that in the 

heat of a campaign partisan passions are so aroused that we cannot 

have frank dicussion.No party has ever deserved quite the 

abuse that each party has got in turn, and nobody has ever deserved 
the praise that both parties have got in turn. 

There is a movement on foot in which, in common with many men 
and women who love their country, I am greatly interested,—the move- 


1 Extracts from “The New Freedom’’ by President Wilson. 









/ 


32 THE AMERICAN VOTER’S HANDBOOK 

ment to open the schoolhouse to the grown-up people in order that they 
may gather and talk over the affairs of the neighborhood and the 

State.These buildings belong to the public. Why not insist 

everywhere that they be used as places of discussion, such as of old 
took place in the town-meetings to which everybody went and where 
every public officer was freely called to account? The schoolhouse, 
which belongs to all of us, is a natural place in which to gather to con¬ 
sult over our common affairs.When in addition to sending our 

children to school to paid teachers, we go to school to one another in 
those same schoolhouses, then we shall begin more fully to realize than 
we ever have realized before what American life is. And let me tell 
you this, confidentially, that wherever you find school boards that ob¬ 
ject to opening the schoolhouses in the evening for public meetings of 
every proper sort, you had better look around for some politician who 
is objecting to it; because the thing that cures bad politics is talk by 

the neighbors.So keep the air clear with constant discussion. 

and, above all things else, take these great fundamental questions of 
your lives with which political platforms concern themselves and search 
them through by every process of debate. Then we shall have a clear 
air in which we shall see our way to each kind of social betterment. 

WOODROW WILSON. 

The life forces of Nature lie outside of us, and are unknown to us. 
We call these forces gravity, inertia, electricity, vital force and so on: 
but the life-force of man is recognized by us, and we call it Freedom. 

TOLSTOI. 

1 When I consider all the Commonwealths that be nowadays, so 
help me God!, I can see nothing but a conspiracy of rich men procur¬ 
ing their own commodities under the name of the Commonwealth. 

SIR THOMAS MORE. 

Men are not corrupted by the exercise of power, or debased by the 
habit of obedience; but by the exercise of a power which they believe 
to be illegimate, and by obedience to a rule which they consider to be 
usurped and oppressive. 

DE TOCQUEVILLE. 

The various occurrences of national existence have everywhere 
turned to the advantage of democracy. All men have aided it by their 
exertions, both those who have intentionally labored in its cause, and 


1 Uttered more than four hundred years ago. 











WHAT THE SAGES SAY 


33 


those who have served it unwittingly. Those who have fought for it, 
and those who have declared themselves its opponents, have all been 
driven along in the same track, have all labored to one end; some 
ignorantly and some unwillingly, all have been blind instruments in the 
hands of God. The gradual development of the principle of equality is, 
therefore, a Providential fact. It has all the chief characteristics of 
such a fact: it is universal, it is durable, it constantly eludes all human 
interference, and all events, as well as all men, contribute to its progress. 

Would it then be wise to imagine that a social movement, the 
causes of which lie so far back, can be checked by the efforts of one 
generation? Can it be believed that the democracy which has over¬ 
thrown the feudal system, and vanquished kings, will retreat before 
tradesmen and capitalists? Will it stop now that it has grown so 
strong, and its adversaries so weak? 

DE TOCQUEVIEEE. 

It is of great importance in a republic, not only to guard the so¬ 
ciety against the oppression of its rulers, but to guard one part of the 
society against the injustice of the other part. 

JAMES MADISON, 

In “The Federalist.” 

Justice is the end of government. It is the end of civil society. It 
ever has been, and ever will be pursued until it be obtained, or until lib¬ 
erty be lost in the pursuit. In a society under the forms of which the 
stronger faction can readily unite and oppress the weaker, anarchy may 
as truly be said to reign as in a state of nature, where the weaker indi¬ 
vidual is not secured against the violence of the stronger. And, as in 
the latter state, even the stronger individuals are prompted by the un¬ 
certainty of their condition to submit to a government which may pro¬ 
tect the weak as well as themselves, so, in the former state, will the 
more powerful factions be gradually induced by a like motive to wish 
for a government which will protect all parties, the weaker as well as 
the more powerful. 

ALEXANDER HAMILTON, 

In “The Federalist.” 

The executive power in our government is not the only, perhaps 
not even the principal, object of my solicitude. The tyranny of the leg¬ 
islature is really the danger most to be feared, and will continue to be 
so for many years to come. The tyranny of the executive power will 
come in its turn, but at a more distant period. 

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 





34 


THE AMERICAN VOTER’S HANDBOOK 


The freest government cannot long endure when the tendency of 
the laws is to create a rapid accumulation of property in the hands of 
a few, and to render the masses poor and dependent. 

DANIEE WEBSTER. 


1 In my own country we are growing more and more to believe 
that the only safe rule in a democracy is to give the people themselves 
the right, after due deliberation, to decide finally on every subject which 
they deem of vital importance. The public servants—legislators, exec¬ 
utives and judges alike—must be in very fact the servants of the peo¬ 
ple. The people must have the right to make and unmake these public 
servants, in order to hold them strictly accountable for their steward¬ 
ship. They must also have the right on their own initiative to pass 
upon laws which the legislature has passed or which it has refused to 
pass, if the legislature does not correctly represent them. Finally, the 
people must not-surrender to the judiciary, any more than to the execu¬ 
tive or legislative branches of the government, the final decision as to 
what laws they are to be permitted to have. In my own country it 
often happens that vitally necessary and important laws demanded in 
the interests of the people, are declared unconstitutional by a reaction¬ 
ary court. In such a case what really happens is that one agent of the 
people, the legislature, passes the law, and another agent of the people, 
the court, declares that it has not the power to pass it. The remedy in 
such a case is obvious. When two agents differ, the principal must 
decide between them. The people are the masters of all their govern¬ 
mental agents, if there is any sincerity in our belief in democracy. 
Where their servants, their agents, disagree, the people themselves 
should have the right to step in and say which of their two servants, the 
court or the legislature, represents their deliberate and well-thought 
out conviction. 

There are few evils greater than a divided sovereignty, where no 
one can say in whose hands the final power is lodged. Men who fear 
and distrust the people, and yet dare not openly avow their fear and 
distrust, constantly endeavor, under the forms of democracy, to rob 
the people of all real power by one or the other of these two devices. 
They give the people the form of sovereignty, but they lodge the power 
of sovereignty elsewhere. This is a grave evil. Nominally to give the 
people the sovereignty, and at the same time covertly to withdraw it 
from them, means a weakening of the spring of responsibility in the 


1 Extracts from an address by Theodore Roosevelt at Buenos Ayres, Nov. 7. 1913.—“The 
Outlook,” Nov. 15, 1913. 





WHAT THE SAGES SAY 


35 


people. In my own country this expedient is especially favored by 
certain great privileged interests, who for two generations have sought 
to place sovereignty in the courts, and to give them a political Tnd non¬ 
judicial power, in order to lodge this power in the hands of those who 
cannot be held accountable by the people for its exercise. 

In the United States the courts have gradually assumed certain 
powers which are purely political. These powers are in no sense judi¬ 
cial. They are not such as courts in European countries exercise. In 
consequence, it js necessary to provide for popular control over the 
exercise of these powers by the courts.Such concern is not mere¬ 

ly wise, but indispensably necessary where the functions exercised are 
legislative and political. In the United States the courts have assumed 
to be the special interpreters of the Constitution. They have assumed 
the right to say what the people are, and what they are not, to be al¬ 
lowed to do in providing social and industrial justice; and this with¬ 
out appeal from the decision of the court, which is to be accepted as 

final.Nowadays many well-meaning and sincere judges have 

grown to regard themselves as having a God-given right to declare on 
their own responsibility what laws the people are to be allowed to 
enact. This is an intolerable position. The people must be in fact, 
and not merely nominally, the masters of their own destiny; and in 
our country we have found by actual experiment that they can be more 
safely intrusted with their own destinies than can any group of out¬ 
siders. 

The trouble which has been caused in the United States by the 
use of the courts in the interest of special privilege to block the cause 
of social and industrial justice is a problem almost exclusively of our 
own country. It is, however, of interest to all democracies as showing 
how important it is that the people shall not let the control of govern¬ 
mental matters slip out of their own hands.It was not until a 

very great man—Marshall—became Chief Justice that the Federal 
Court began seriously to arrogate to itself the right, a negative but 
vitally important right, to say whether or not the legislature had the 
power to pass laws which the Court did not regard as proper under the 
Constitution. The assertion of this right at once overthrew the theory 
that each of the three different departments of government was su¬ 
preme in itself. If the Supreme Court of the United States has the 
power to annul acts of Congress, it is itself not merely a judicial, but 
a law-making, power of the first consequence, for it is the final, the 
sovereign, authority. This is a tremendous authority. The right to 





36 


THE AMERICAN VOTER’S HANDBOOK 


annul the law or to change it—as by judicial decision the Fourteenth 
Amendment to the United States Constitution has been vitally and, as 
I hold, lamentably changed—is the right to govern. The authority 
that is able to say by what laws the people shall be governed is the 
sovereign authority in the State. For sixty years the greatest Presi¬ 
dents—Jefferson, Jackson, and Abraham Lincoln—opposed this doc¬ 
trine as laid down by the Supreme Court. 

For a third of a century it [the power of the Supreme Court] has 
now been exercised with what I am forced to say, speaking gravely and 
deliberately, has been inexcusable and reckless wantonness, on behalf 
of privilege, and against the interests of the very people for whom it 
is most needful that the power of the Government should be invoked. 
.We deny the right of the Courts to annul laws which the peo¬ 
ple desire, because these laws do not accord with the economic ideas of 
the judiciary. We hold that the people have the right at all times and 
under all conditions to say by what laws they are to be governed, and 
that those who deny this theory are not loyal to the theory of repub¬ 
licanism. [Democracy]*. 

THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 


NOTE—My apology to the busy reader for quoting at such length trom this notable ad- 
dress of President Roosevelt, is that thus far he is the only one ot our greater public men who 
has had the courage to point out in such clear-cut and unmistakable language the most alarm¬ 
ing menace, it seems to me, that just now threatens the stability of our governmental institu¬ 
tions. When the people begin to lose faith in the integrity ot our courts, as they unquestion¬ 
ably have of late, the foundations of the Republic are dangerously undermined. When the 
people begin to doubt that even-handed justice is being dispensed by the blind goddess, there 
is grave danger of revolt. (The Author.) 


1 A country is owned and dominated by the capital that is invested 

in it.The; plans of the modern world are made in the counting- 

house. The men that do the business of the world now shape the des¬ 
tinies of the world; and peace, or war, is now, in a large measure, in 
the hands of those who conduct the commerce of the world. 

WOODROW WILSON. 


^ Extract from President Wilson’s address in responding to an address by the Mayor ol 
Turin, Italy, as reported by the Associated Press in the metropolitan press of the United 
States, January 8, 1919. 







WHAT OF THE FUTURE ? 


Forward, not backward, is the great watchword of progress. 
Powerful and irresistible forces, whose strength and magnitude no 
statesman can accurately measure are impelling us toward an unreveal¬ 
ed future. 

Whether an unborn Gibbon shall chronicle the “Decline and Fall” 
of this nation, or whether we shall go forward towards a goal ever 
higher and higher in human achievement, will depend in large measure 
upon the fidelity with which we of this generation advance the sacred 
cause of freedom which the fathers have handed down to us. Let us 
hope that our abilities will be commensurate with the tasks that con¬ 
front us. 

The following are some of the major questions that thoughtful 
observers are becoming aware will sooner or later have to be settled at 
the ballot-box, in order to abolish social and industrial unrest, and to 
insure the stability of the republic. Their solution cannot be postponed 
much longer, if we are to avert a violent social upheaval. 

"Question 1. Shall public utilities—the means of transportation, 
communication, and general public service—continue to be controlled 
and operated by a small minority of the commonwealth for their private 
profit; or shall we have service of the public, by the public, for the pub¬ 
lic, zvithont private profit ? 

Question 2. Shall we as a nation continue to allow our natural re¬ 
sources—forests, waterpowers, coal, oil, and other minerals—to be 
grasped, exploited and wasted by a small greedy minority who give no 
thought to the future; or shall we recognize and insist that these are 
“God’s gifts to all men,” and take thought for those who are to come 
after us ? 

Question 3. Shall industry continue to be dominated by organized 
capital for the enrichment of the few; or shall those who toil in field and 
factory be compensated in full for their contributions to our national 
wealth ? 

Question 4. Shall we continue to create a growing, dependent 
majority who live on the very margin of subsistence; or shall we so 
modify our present industrial system that the toilers of the nation 

1 To the Reader: If you favor concerted action on any or all of these four questions send your 
name and post-office address to H. O. Palen, 179 South Cherry Street, Poughkeepsie, N. Y. 




38 


THE AMERICAN VOTER’S HANDBOOK 


may be kept from want and the humiliation of charity doles, when their 
productive years have passed ? 

In our attempts to solve these perplexing questions, let us bear in 
mind Lincoln’s sage advice that “Nothing is ever settled, until it is 
settled right.” 

Let us then go forward with the high hope that there exists in the 
American people a latent reserve of force and patriotism sufficient to 
overcome all of the shortcomings of which we now complain, and that 
we may yet reach heights that will make us worthy sons and daughters 
of the fathers and mothers who gave us our priceless heritage. 


1 Thou, too, Sail on O Ship of State! 

Sail on, O Union, strong and great! 

Humanity with all its fears, 

With all the hopes of future years, 

Is hanging breathless on thy fate! 

We know what Master laid thy keel. 

What workmen wrought thy ribs of steel, 

Who made each mast and sail and rope, 

What anvils rang, what hammers beat, 

In what a forge and what a heat 
Were shaped the anchors of thy hope! 

Fear not each sudden sound and shock, 

’Tis of the wave and not the rock; 

’Tis but the flapping of the sail, 

And not a rent made by the gale! 

In spite of rock and tempest’s roar, 

In spite of false lights on the shore, 

Sail on, nor fear to breast the sea! 

Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears, 

Our faith trimphant o’er our fears, 

Are all with thee,—are all with thee! 

LONGFELLOW. 


\ 


1 From Longfellow’s “Building of the Ship.” 




THE PRESIDENTIAL RACE 


The jockeying for advantage in the get-away is finally over. The 
starter's flag has dropped. They’re off! And the race is on. 

Each of the two major parties has taken the usual “View-with- 
alarm” whack at the principles and policies of the other, and discharged 
its deadly gas of invective and scorn with the customary withering 
contempt, thus giving them an even start in this respect. 

One searches in vain among the heavy planks of the ponderous 
platforms for any “sparkling gems of thought” that might have got 
lodged in their interstices. Likewise, a careful scanning of the need¬ 
lessly long and wordy candidates’ speeches of acceptance fails to dis¬ 
close any scintillations of genius that give promise of statesmanship of 
a high order. 

Discerning critics and editors of the independent press comment 
on the lack of any marked difference between the platform utterances 
of the two major parties on the paramount issue. In its leading editor¬ 
ial in a recent issue, one of these inquires: “What is the great issue 
between the major political parties in the coming Presidential cam¬ 
paign? The League of Nations of course. Dissenters of influence, 
near-bolters, pause for pronouncements of the platforms and the can¬ 
didates on this overshadowing issue. Newspaper editorial comment 
thereon, if laid end to end, would reach to—perhaps only an Einstein 
can answer. Yet here is the New York Tribune, inherently and dyed- 
in-the-wool Republican, unqualified supporter of the Grand Old Party, 
affirming editorially that: 

‘The truth is, disregarding rhetorical surplusages, the two plat¬ 
forms are much alike touching the League matter. The Republican 
platform is for an association of nations within the limits of the Con¬ 
stitution, such as our associates will agree to. The San Francisco plat¬ 
form is for a league within the limits of the Constitution, and with such 
reservations as our allies will accept. The difference, as has been re¬ 
peatedly noted in these columns, is but microscopic.’ Issue? Well, 
then, the personality of the candidates. Forgetting those 1912 anti- 
Roosevelt invectives of the Marion Star, Harding is ‘at least the kind 
of a man who will surround himself with-.’ Yes; clearly the dif¬ 

ference in character of the candidates is what counts. And lo! one 
turns to a full-page cartooon by Jay N. Darling—‘Ding/ beloved car- 




40 


THE AMERICAN VOTER’S HANDBOOK 


toonist of The Tribune, and moulder of opinion in not less than seventy- 
nine other newspapers throughout the land—which depicts Harding 
and Cox as two peas in a pod, with text so proclaiming them.” 

Perhaps the forward-looking voter may find some crumbs of com¬ 
fort in one or all of the other four parties’ platforms whose entries for 
the great quadrennial race will probably be among the “also rans” 
when the contending nominees have passed under the wire. 


PARTY PLATFORMS FOR 1920 


In the following pages are given the Platforms of the six regularly 
organized Political Parties that are appealing to American voters for 
their support at the ballot-box in this Presidential election. These are 
printed without comment or suggestion from texts furnished by the 
National Campaign Committees of the several party organizations, 
for the information and guidance of our readers. 








PLATFORM OF 

THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 1920 


Adopted by the Republican National Convention 
Chicago, June 10, 1920 


The Republican Party, assembled in representative national convention, re¬ 
affirms its unyielding devotion to the Constitution of the United States, and to 
the guarantees of civil, political and religious liberty therein contained. It will 
resist all attempts to overthrow the foundations of the government or to weaken 
the force of its controlling principles and ideals, whether these attempts be made 
in the form of international policy or domestic agitation. 

For seven years the national government has been controlled by the Demo¬ 
cratic Party. During that period a war of unparalleled magnitude has shaken the 
foundations of civilization, decimated the population of Europe, and left in its 
train economic misery and suffering second only to the war itself. 

The outstanding features of the Democratic administration have been com¬ 
plete unpreparedness for war and complete unpreparedness for peace. 

UNPREPAREDNESS FOR WAR 

Inexcusable failure to make timely preparation is the chief indictment against 
the Democratic administration in the conduct of the war. Had not our Asso¬ 
ciates protected us, both on land and sea, during the first twelve months of our 
participation, and furnished us to the very day of the Armistice with munitions, 
planes and artillery, this failure would have been punished with disaster. It 
directly resulted in unnecessary losses to our gallant troops, in the impediment 
of victory itself, and in an enormous waste of public funds literally poured into 
the breach created by gross neglect. Today it is reflected in our huge tax burden 
and in the high cost of living. 

UNPREPAREDNESS FOR PEACE 

Peace found the Administration as unprepared for peace as war found it 
unprepared for war. The vital needs of the country demanded the early and sys¬ 
tematic return to a peace-time basis. 

This called for vision, leadership and intelligent planning. All three have 
been lacking. While the country has been left to shift for itself, the Government 
has continued on a war-time basis. The Administration has not demobilized the 
army of place holders. It continued a method of financing which was indefen¬ 
sible during the period of reconstruction. It has used legislation passed to meet 
the emergency of war to continue its arbitrary and inquisitorial control over the 
life of the people in time of peace, and to carry confusion into industrial life. 
Under the despot’s plea of necessity or superior wisdom, executive usurpation of 
legislative and judicial functions still undermines our institutions. Eighteen 




44 


THE AMERICAN VOTER’S HANDBOOK 


months after the Armistice, with its war-time powers unabridged, its war-time 
departments undischarged, its war-time army of place holders still mobilized, 
the Administration continues to flounder helplessly. 

The demonstrated incapacity of the Democratic Party has destroyed public 
confidence, weakened the authority of the government, and produced a feeling of 
distrust and hesitation so universal as to increase enormously the difficulties of 
readjustment and to delay the return to normal conditions. 

Never has our nation been confronted with graver problems. The people 
are entitled to know in definite terms how the parties purpose solving these 
problems. To that end, the Republican Party declares its policies and program 
to be as follows : 

CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT 

We undertake to end executive autocracy and to restore to the people their 
constitutional government. 

The policies herein declared will be carried out by the federal and state gov¬ 
ernments, each acting within its constitutional powers. 

FOREIGN RELATIONS 

The foreign policy of the Administration has been founded upon no principle 
and directed by no definite conception of our nation’s rights and obligations. It 
has been humiliating to America and irritating to other nations, with the result 
that after a period of unexampled sacrifice, our motives are suspected, our moral 
influence impaired, and our Government stands discredited and friendless among 
the nations of the world. 

We favor a liberal and generous foreign policy founded upon definite moral 
and political principles, characterized by a clear understanding of and a firm ad¬ 
herence to our own rights, and unfailing respect for the rights of others. We 
should afford full and adequate protection to the life, liberty, property and all 
international rights of every American citizen, and should require a proper re¬ 
spect for the American flag; but we should be equally careful to manifest a just 
regard for the rights of other nations. A scrupulous observance of our interna¬ 
tional engagements when lawfully assumed is essential to our own honor and self- 
respect, and the respect of other nations. Subject to a due regard for our in¬ 
ternational obligations, we should leave our country free to develop its civilization 
along lines most conducive to the happiness and welfare of its people, and to cast 
its influence on the side of justice and right should occasion require. 

(a) MEXICO 

The ineffective policy of the present Administration in Mexican matters has 
been largely responsible for the continued loss of American lives in that country 
and upon our border; for the enormous loss of American and foreign property; 
for the lowering of American standards of morality and social relations with 
Mexicans, and for the bringing of American ideals of justice, national honor and 
political integrity into contempt and ridicule in Mexico and throughout the world. 

The policy of wordy, futile written protests against the acts of Mexican 
officials, explained the following day by the President himself as being meaning¬ 
less and not intended to be considered seriously, or enforced, has but added in 
degree to that contempt, and has earned for us the sneers and jeers of Mexican 
bandits, and added insult upon insult against our national honor and dignity. 


REPUBLICAN PLATFORM 1920 


45 


We should not recognize any Mexican government, unless it be a responsible 
government willing and able to give sufficient guarantees that the lives and prop¬ 
erty of American citizens are respected and protected; that wrongs will be prompt¬ 
ly corrrected and just compensation will be made for injury sustained. The Re¬ 
publican Party pledges itself to a consistent, firm and effective policy towards 
Mexico that shall enforce respect for the American flag and that shall protect the 
rights of American citizens lawfully in Mexico to security of life and enjoyment 
of property, in accordance with established principles of international law and our 
treaty rights. 

The Republican Party is a sincere friend of the Mexican people. In its in¬ 
sistence upon the maintenance of order for the protection of American citizens 
within its borders a great service will be rendered the Mexican people themselves ; 
for a continuation of present conditions means disaster to their interests and 
patriotic aspirations. 

(b) MANDATE FOR ARMENIA 

We condemn President Wilson for asking Congress to empower him to accept 
a mandate for Armenia. We commend the Republican Senate for refusing the 
President’s request to empower him to accept the mandate for Armenia. The 
acceptance of such mandate would throw the United States into the very mael¬ 
strom of European quarrels. According to the estimate of the Harbord Com¬ 
mission, organized by authority of President Wilson, we would be called upon 
to send 59,000 American boys to police Armenia and to expend $276,000,000 in 
the first year and $756,000,000 in five years. This estimate is made upon the 
basis that we would have only roving bands to fight; but in case of serious 
trouble with the Turks or with Russia, a force exceeding 200,000 would be 
necessary. 

No more striking illustration can be found of President Wilson’s disregard 
of the lives of American boys or of American interests. 

We deeply sympathize with the people of Armenia and stand ready to help 
them in all proper ways, but the Republican Party will oppose now and hereafter 
the acceptance of a mandate for any country in Europe or Asia. 

(c) LEAGUE OF NATIONS 

The Republican Party stands for agreement among the nations to preserve 
the peace of the world. We believe that such an international association must 
be based upon international justice, and must provide methods which shall main¬ 
tain the rule of public right by the development of law and the decision of im¬ 
partial courts, and which shall secure instant and general international confer¬ 
ence whenever peace shall be threatened by political action, so that the nations 
pledged to do and insist upon what is just and fair may exercise their influence 
and power for the prevention of war. 

We believe that all this can be done without the compromise of national 
independence, without depriving the people of the United States in advance of 
the right to determine for themselves what is just and fair when the occasion 
arises, and without involving them as participants and not as peace-makers in 
a multitude of quarrels, the merits of which they are unable to judge. 

The covenant signed by the President at Paris failed signally to accomplish 
this great purpose, and contains stipulations, not only intolerable for an inde- 


46 


THE AMERICAN VOTER’S HANDBOOK 


pendent people, but certain to produce the injustice, hostility and controversy 
among nations which it is proposed to prevent. 

That convenant repudiated, to a degree wholly unnecessary and unjustifiable, 
the time-honored policies in favor of peace declared by Washington, Jefferson, 
and Monroe, and pursued by all American administrations for more than a cent¬ 
ury, and it ignored the universal sentiment of America for generations past in 
favor of international law and arbitration, and it rested the hope of the future 
upon mere expediency and negotiation. 

The unfortunate insistence of the President upon having his own way, without 
any change and without any regard to the opinions of a majority of the Senate, 
which shares with him in the treaty-making power, and the President’s demand 
that the Treaty should be ratified without any modification, created a situation 
in which Senators were required to vote upon their consciences and their oaths 
according to their judgment against the Treaty as it was presented, or submit 
to the commands of a dictator in a matter where the authority and the respon¬ 
sibility under the Constitution were theirs, and not his. 

The Senators performed their duty faithfully. We approve their conduct and 
honor their courage and fidelity. And we pledge the coming Republican admin¬ 
istration to such agreements with the other nations of the world as shall meet 
the full duty of America to civilization and humanity, in accordance with Ameri¬ 
can ideals, and without surrendering the right of the American people to exer¬ 
cise its judgment and its power in favor of justice and peace. 

CONGRESS AND RECONSTRUCTION 

Despite the unconstitutional and dictatorial course of the President and the 
partisan obstruction of the Democratic Congressional minority, the Republican 
majority has enacted a program of constructive legislation which in great part, 
however, has been nullified by the vindictive vetoes of the President. 

The Republican Congress has met the problems presented by the Adminis¬ 
tration’s unpreparedness for peace. It has repealed the greater part of the 
vexatious war legislation. It has enacted a Transportation Act making possible 
the rehabilitation of the railroad systems of the country, the operation of which 
under the present Democratic Administration, has been wasteful, extravagant 
and inefficient in the highest degree. The Transportation Act made provision 
for the peaceful settlement of wage disputes, partially nullified, however, by the 
President’s delay in appointing the Wage Board created by the act. This delay 
precipitated the outlaw railroad strike. 

We stopped the flood of public treasure, recklessly poured into the lap of an 
inept Shipping Board, and laid the foundations for the creation of a great mer¬ 
chant marine; we took from the incompetent Democratic Administration the 
administration of .the telegraph and telephone lines of the country and returned 
them to private ownership ; we reduced the cost of postage and increased the 
pay of the postal employees—the poorest paid of all public servants ; we provided 
pensions for superannuated and retired civil servants ; and for an increase in 
pay of soldiers and sailors. We reorganized the Army on a peace footing, and 
provided for the maintenance of a powerful and efficient Navy. 

The Republican Congress established by law a permanent Woman’s Bureau 
in the Department of Labor; we submitted to the country the constitutional 
amendment for woman suffrage, and furnished twenty-nine of the thirty-five 
legislatures which have ratified it to date. 


REPUBLICAN PLATFORM 1920 


47 


Legislation for the relief of the consumers of print paper, for the extension of 
the powers of the government under the Food Control Act, for broadening the 
scope of the War Risk Insurance Act, better provision for the dwindling number 
of aged veterans of the Civil War and for the better support of the maimed and 
injured of the Great War, and for making practical the Vocational Rehabilitation 
Act, has been enacted by the Republican Congress. 

We passed an oil leasing and water power bill to unlock for the public good 
the great pent-up resources of the country; we have sought to check the profli¬ 
gacy of the Administration, to realize upon the assets of the government and to 
husband the revenues derived from taxation. The Republicans in Congress have 
been responsible for cuts in the estimates for government expenditure of 1 nearly 
$3,000,000,000, since the signing of the Armistice. 

We enacted a national executive budget law; we strengthened the Federal 
Reserve Act to permit banks to lend needed assistance to farmers ; we authorized 
financial incorporations to develop export trade; and finally, amended the rules 
of the Senate and House, which will reform evils in procedure and guarantee 
more efficient and responsible government. 

• AGRICULTURE 

The farmer is the backbone of the nation. National greatness and economic 
independence demand a population distributed between industry and the farm, 
and sharing on equal terms the prosperity which is wholly dependent upon the 
efforts of both. Neither can prosper at the expense of the other without inviting 
joint disaster. 

The crux of the present agricultural condition lies in prices, labor and credit. 

The Republican Party believes that this condition can be improved by: 
practical and adequate farm representation in the appointment of governmental 
officials and commissions; the right to form co-operative associations for mar¬ 
keting their products, and protection against discrimination; the scientific study 
of agricultural prices and farm production costs, at home and abroad, with a 
view to reducing the frequency of abnormal fluctuations ; the uncensored publi¬ 
cation of such reports ; the authorization of associations for the extension of 
personal credit; a national inquiry on the co-ordination of rail, water and 
motor transportation with adequate facilities for receiving, handling and mar¬ 
keting food; the encouragement of our export trade; an end to unnecessary 
price-fixing and ill considered efforts arbitrarily to reduce prices of farm products 
which invariably result to the disadvantage both of producer and consumer; and 
the encouragement of the production and importation of fertilizing material and 
of its extensive use. 

The Federal Farm Loan Act should be so administered as to facilitate the 
acquisition of farm land by those desiring to become owners and proprietors and 
thus minimize the evils of farm tenantry, and to furnish such long time credits 
as farmers may need to finance adequately their larger and long time produc¬ 
tion operations. 

INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS 

There are two different conceptions of the relations of capital and labor. 
The one is contractual and emphasizes the diversity of interests of employer and 
employee. The other is that of co-partnership in a common task. 


48 


THE AMERICAN VOTER’S HANDBOOK 


We recognize the justice of collective bargaining as a means of promoting 
good will, establishing closer and more harmonious relations between employers 
and employees, and realizing the true ends of industrial justice. 

The strike or the lockout, as a means of settling industrial disputes, inflicts 
such loss and suffering on the community as to justify government initiative to 
reduce its frequency and limit its consequences. 

We deny the right to strike against the government; but the rights and in¬ 
terests of all government employees must be safeguarded by impartial laws and 
tribunals. 

In public utilities we favor the establishment of an impartial tribunal to 
make an investigation of the facts and to render a decision to the end that there 
may be no organized interruption of service necessary to the lives, health and 
welfare of the people. The decisions of the tribunals should be morally but not 
legally binding, and an informed public sentiment be relied on to secure their 
acceptance. The tribunals, however, should refuse to accept jurisdiction except 
for the purpose of investigation, as long as the public service be interrupted. For 
public utilities we favor the type of tribunal provided for in the Transportation 
Act of 1920. 

In private industries we do not advocate the principle of compulsory arbi¬ 
tration, but we favor impartial commissions and better facilities for voluntary 
mediation, conciliation and arbitration, supplemented by that full publicity which 
will enlist the influence of an aroused public opinion. The Government should 
take the initiative in inviting the establishment of tribunals or commissions for 
the purpose of voluntary arbitration and of investigation of disputed issues. 

We demand the exclusion from interstate commerce of the products of con¬ 
vict labor. 


NATIONAL ECONOMY 

A Republican Congress reduced the estimates submitted by- the Adminis¬ 
tration almost three billion dollars. Greater economies could have been effected 
had it not been for the stubborn refusal of the Administration to co-operate with 
Congress in an economy program. The universal demand for an executive budget 
is a recognition of the incontrovertible fact that leadership and sincere assistance 
on the part of the executive departments are essential to effective economy and 
constructive retrenchment. 

The Overman Act invested the President of the United States with all the 
authority and power necessary to restore the Federal Government to a normal 
peace basis and to reorganize, retrench and demobilize. The dominant fact is 
that eighteen months after the Armistice, the United States Government is still 
on a war-time basis, and the expenditure program of the Executive reflects war¬ 
time extravagance rather than rigid peace-time economy. 

As an example of the failure to retrench which has characterized the post¬ 
war policy of the Administration, we cite the fact that not including the War and 
Navy Departments, the executive departments and other establishments at Wash¬ 
ington actually record an increase subsequent to the Armistice of 2,184 employees. 
The net decrease in payroll costs contained in the 1921 demands submitted by 
the Administration is only one per cent, under that of 1920. The annual ex¬ 
penses of the Federal Government can be reduced hundreds of millions of dollars 
without impairing the efficiency of the public service. 


REPUBLICAN PLATFORM 1920 


49 


W e pledge ourselves to a carefully planned readjustment to a peace-time basis 
and to a policy of rigid economy, to the better co-ordination of departmental 
activities, to 'the elimination of unnecessary officials and employees, and to the 
raising of the standard of individual efficiency. 

THE EXECUTIVE BUDGET 

We congratulate the Republican Congress on the enactment of a law pro¬ 
viding for the establishment of an Executive Budget as a necessary instrument 
for a sound and business-like administration of the national finances ; and we 
condemn the veto of the President which defeated this great financial reform. 

REORGANIZATION OF FEDERAL DEPARTMENTS AND BUREAUS 

We advocate a thorough investigation of the present organization of the 
Federal departments and bureaus, with a view to securing consolidation, a more 
business-like distribution of functions, the elimination of duplication, delays and 
over-lapping of work, and the establishment of an up-to-date and efficient admin¬ 
istrative organization. x 

WAR POWERS OF THE PRESIDENT 

The President clings tenaciously to his autocratic war time powers. His veto 
of the Resolution declaring peace and his refusal to sign the bill repealing war¬ 
time legislation, no longer necessary, evidence his determination not to restore 
to the Nation and to the States the form of government provided for by the Con¬ 
stitution. This usurpation is intolerable and deserves the severest condemnation. 

TAXATION 

The burden of taxation imposed upon the American people is staggering; 
but in presenting a true statement of the situation we must face the fact that, 
while the character of the taxes can and should be changed, an early reduction 
of the amount of revenue to be raised is not to be expected. The next Republican 
administration will inherit from its Democratic predecessor a floating indebted¬ 
ness of over three billion dollars, the prompt liquidation of which is demanded 
by sound financial considerations. Moreover, the whole fiscal policy of the 
Government must be deeply influenced by the necessity of meeting obligations in 
excess of five billion dollars which mature in 1923. But sound policy equally 
demands the early accomplishment of that real reduction of the tax burden which 
may be achieved by substituting simple for complex tax laws and procedure; 
prompt and certain determination of the tax liability for delay and uncertainty; 
tax laws which do not, for tax laws which do, excessively mulct the consumer 
or needlessly repress enterprise and thrift. 

We advocate the issuance of a simplified form of income return; authoriz¬ 
ing the Treasury Department to make changes in regulations effective only from 
the date of their approval; empowering the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 
with the consent of the taxpayer, to make final and conclusive settlements of 
tax claims and assessments barring fraud, and the creation of a Tax Board con¬ 
sisting of at least three representatives of the tax-paying public and the heads of 
the principal divisions of the Bureau of Internal Revenue to act as a standing 
committee on the simplification of forms, procedure and law, and to make recom¬ 
mendations to the Congress. 


50 


THE AMERICAN VOTER’S HANDBOOK 


BANKING AND CURRENCY 

The fact is that the war, to a great extent, was financed by a policy of in¬ 
flation through certificate borrowing from the banks, and bonds issued at artifi¬ 
cial rates sustained by the low discount rates established by the Federal Re¬ 
serve Board. The continuance of this policy since the Armistice lays the Ad¬ 
ministration open to severe criticism. Almost up to the present time, the prac¬ 
tices of the Federal Reserve Board as to credit control have been frankly dom¬ 
inated by the convenience of the Treasury. 

The results have been a greatly increased war cost, a serious loss to the mil¬ 
lions of people who in good faith bought Liberty Bonds and Victory Notes at par, 
and extensive post-war speculation, followed today by a restricted credit for 
legitimate industrial expansion. As a matter of public policy, we urge all banks 
to give credit preference to essential industries. 

The Federal Reserve System should be free from political influence, which 
is quite as important as its independence of domination by financial combinations. 

THE HIGPI COST OF LIVING 

The prime cause of the “High Cost of Living” has been first and foremost, 
a fifty per cent, depreciation in the purchasing power of the dollar, due to a gross 
expansion of our currency and credit. Reduced production, burdensome taxa¬ 
tion, swollen profits, and the increased demand for goods arising from a fictitious 
but enlarged buying power have been contributing causes in a greater or less 
degree. 

We condemn the unsound fiscal policies of the Democratic administration 
which have brought these things to pass, and their attempts to impute the conse¬ 
quences to minor and secondary causes. Much of the injury wrought is irrepar¬ 
able. There is no short way out, and we decline to deceive the people with vain 
promises or quack remedies. But as the. political party that throughout its his¬ 
tory has stood for honest money and sound finance, we pledge ourselves to earnest 
and consistent attack upon the high cost of living by rigorous avoidance of fur¬ 
ther inflation in our government borrowing, by courageous and intelligent defla¬ 
tion of over-expanded credit and currrency, by encouragement of heightened pro¬ 
duction of goods and services, by prevention of unreasonable profits, by exercise 
of public economy and stimulation of private thrift and by revision of war im¬ 
posed taxes unsuited to peace-time economy. 

PROFITEERING 

We condemn the Democratic administration for failure impartially to en¬ 
force the anti-profiteering laws enacted by the Republican Congress. 

RAILROADS 

We are opposed to government ownership and operation or employee opera¬ 
tion of the railroads. In view of the conditions prevailing in this country, the 
experience of the last two years, and the conclusions which may fairly be drawn 
from an observation of the transportation systems of other countries, it is clear 
that adequate transportation service both for the present and future can be fur¬ 
nished more certainly, economically and efficiently through private ownership 
and operation under proper regulation and control. 


REPUBLICAN PLATFORM 1920 


51 


There should be no speculative profit in rendering the service of transporta¬ 
tion; but in order to do justice to the capital already invested in railway enter¬ 
prises, to restore railway credit, to induce future investment at a reasonable 
rate, and to furnish enlarged facilities to meet the requirements of the; con¬ 
stantly increasing development and distribution, a fair return upon actual value 
of the railway property used in transportation should be made reasonably sure, 
and at the same time provide constant employment to those engaged in trans¬ 
portation service, with fair hours and favorable working conditions, at wages 
or compensation at least equal to those prevailing in similar lines of industry. 

We endorse the Transportation Act of 1920 enacted by the Republican Con¬ 
gress as a most constructive legislative achievement. 

WATERWAYS 

We declare it to be our policy to encourage and develop water transportation 
service and facilities in connection with the commerce of the United States. 

REGULATION OF INDUSTRY AND COMMERCE 

We approve in general the existing Federal legislation against monopoly 
and combinations in restraint of trade, but since the known certainty of a law is 
the safety of all, we advocate such amendment as will provide American busi¬ 
ness men with better means of determining in advance whether a proposed com¬ 
bination is or is not unlawful. The Federal Trade Commission, under a Demo¬ 
cratic administration, has not accomplished the purpose for which it was created. 
This Commission properly organized and its duties efficiently administered 
should afford protection to the public and legitimate business interests. There 
should be no persecution of honest business, but to the extent that circumstances 
warrant we pledge ourselves to strengthen the law against unfair practices. 

We pledge the party to an immediate resumption of trade relations with 
every nation with which we are at peace. 

INTERNATIONAL TRADE AND TARIFF 

The uncertain and unsettled condition of international balances, the abnormal 
economic and trade situation of the world, and the impossibility of forecasting 
accurately even the near future, preclude the formulation of a definite program 
to meet conditions a year hence. But the Republican Party reaffirms its belief 
in the protective principle and pledges itself to a revision of the tariff as soon 
as conditions shall make it necessary for the preservation of the home market for 
American labor, agriculture and industry. 

MERCHANT MARINE 

The national defense and our foreign commerce require a merchant marine 
of the best type of modern ship flying the American flag, manned by American 
seamen, owned by private capital, and operated by private energy. We endorse 
the sound legislation recently enacted by the Republican Congress that will in¬ 
sure the promotion and maintenance of the American merchant marine. 

We favor the application of the Workmen’s Compensation Acts to the mer¬ 
chant marine. 

We recommend that all ships engaged in coastwise trade and all vessels of the 
American merchant marine shall pass through the Panama Canal without pay¬ 
ment of tolls. 


52 


THE AMERICAN VOTER’S HANDBOOK 


IMMIGRATION 

The standard of living and the standard of citizenship of a nation are its 
most precious possessions, and the preservation and elevation of those standards 
is the first duty of our government. The immigration policy of the United 
States should be such as to insure that the number of foreigners in the country 
at any time shall not exceed that which can be assimilated with reasonable rapid¬ 
ity, and t6 favor immigrants whose standards are similar to ours. 

The selective tests that are at present applied should be improved by requir¬ 
ing a higher physical standard, a more complete exclusion of mental defectives 
and of criminals, and a more effective inspection applied as near the source of 
immigration as possible, as well as at the port of entry. Justice to the foreigner 
and to ourselves demands provision for the guidance, protection and better eco¬ 
nomic distribution of our alien population. To facilitate government super¬ 
vision, all aliens should be required to register annually until they become 
naturalized. 

The existing policy of the United States for the practical exclusion of Asiatic 
immigrants is sound, and should be maintained. 

NATURALIZATION 

There is urgent need of improvement in our naturalization law. No alien 
should become a citizen until he has become genuinely American, and adequate 
tests for determining the alien’s fitness for American citizenship should be pro¬ 
vided for by law. 

We advocate, in addition, the independent naturalization of married women. 
An American woman, resident in the United States, should not lose her citizen¬ 
ship by marriage to an alien. 

FREE SPEECH AND ALIEN AGITATION 

We demand that every American citizen shall enjoy the ancient and consti¬ 
tutional right of free speech, free press and free assembly and the no less sacred 
right of the qualified voter to be represented by his duly chosen representatives ; 
but no man may advocate resistance to the law, and no man may advocate vio¬ 
lent overthrow of the government. 

Aliens within the jurisdiction of the United States are not entitled of right 
to liberty of agitation directed against the government or American institutions. 

Every government has the power to exclude and deport those aliens who 
constitute a real menace to its peaceful existence. But in view of the large 
numbers of people affected by the immigration acts and in view of the vigorous 
malpractice of the Departments of Justice and Labor, an adequate public hear¬ 
ing before a competent administrative tribunal should be assured to all. 

LYNCHING 

We urge Congress to consider the most effective means to end lynching in 
this country which continues to be a terrible blot on our American civilization. , 

PUBLIC ROADS AND HIGHWAYS 

We favor liberal appropriations in co-operation with the States for the con¬ 
struction of highways, which will bripg about a reduction in transportation costs, 
better marketing of farm products, improvement in rural postal delivery, as well 
as meet the needs of military defense. 


REPUBLICAN PLATFORM 1920 


53 


In determining the proportion of Federal aid for road construction among 
the States, the sums lost in taxation to the respective States by the setting apart 
of large portions of their area as forest reservations should be considered as a 
controlling factor. 

CONSERVATION 

Conservation is a Republican policy. It began with the passage of the 
Reclamation Act signed by President Roosevelt. The recent passage of the coal, 
oil and phosphate leasing act by a Republican Congress and the enactment of 
the waterpower bill fashioned in accordance with the same principle, are con¬ 
sistent landmarks in the development of the conservation of our national re¬ 
sources. We denounce the refusal of the President to sign the waterpower bill, 
passed after ten years of controversy. The Republican Party has taken an es¬ 
pecially honorable part in saving our national forests and in the effort to estab¬ 
lish a national forest policy. Our most pressing conservation question relates 
to our forests. We are using our forest resources faster than they are being re¬ 
newed. The result is to raise unduly the cost of forest products to consumers 
and especially farmers, who use more than half the lumber produced in America, 
and in the end to create a timber famine. The Federal Government, the States 
and private interests must unite in devising means to meet the menace. 

RECLAMATION 

We favor, a fixed and comprehensive policy of reclamation to increase na¬ 
tional wealth and production. 

We recognize in the development of reclamation through Federal action 
with its increase of production and taxable wealth a safeguard for the nation. 

We commend to Congress a policy to reclaim lands and the establishment of 
a fixed national policy of development of natural resources in relation to reclama¬ 
tion through the now designated government agencies. 

ARMY AND NAVY 

We feel the deepest pride in the fine courage, the resolute endurance, the 
gallant spirit of the officers and men of our army and navy in the World War. 
They were in all ways worthy of the best traditions of the nation’s defenders, 
and we pledge ourselves to proper maintenace of the military and naval establish¬ 
ments upon which our national security and dignity depend. 

THE SERVICE MEN 

We hold in imperishable remembrance the valor and the patriotism of the 
soldiers and sailors of America who fought in the great war for human liberty, 
and we pledge ourselves to discharge to the fullest the obligations which a grate¬ 
ful nation justly should fulfill, in appreciation of the services rendered by its 
defenders on sea and on land. 

Republicans are not ungrateful. Throughout their history they have shown 
their gratitude toward the nation’s defenders. Liberal legislation for the care 
of the disabled and infirm and their dependents has ever marked Republican 
policy toward the soldier and sailor of all the wars in which our country has 
participated. The present Congress has appropriated generously for the dis¬ 
abled of the World War. 

The amounts already applied and authorized for the fiscal year 1920-21 for 
this purpose reached the stupendous sum of $1,180,571,893. This legislation is 


54 


THE AMERICAN VOTER’S HANDBOOK 


significant of the party’s purpose in generously caring for the maimed and dis¬ 
abled men of the recent war. 

CIVIL SERVICE 

We renew our repeated declaration that the civil service law shall be thor¬ 
oughly and honestly enforced and extended wherever practicable. The recent 
action of Congress in enacting a comprehensive civil service retirement law and 
in working out a comprehensive employment and wage policy that will guar¬ 
antee equal and just treatment to the army of government workers, and in cen¬ 
tralizing the administration of the new and progressive employment policy in 
the hands of the Civil Service Commission is worthy of all praise. 

POSTAL SERVICE 

We condemn the present administration for its destruction of the efficiency 
of the postal service, and the telegraph and telephone service when controlled by 
the government and for its failure to properly compensate employees whose ex¬ 
pert knowledge is essential to the proper conduct of the affairs of the postal sys¬ 
tem. We commend the Republican Congress for the enactment of legislation 
increasing the pay of postal employees, who up to that time were the poorest paid 
in the government service. 

WOMAN SUFFRAGE 

i 

We welcome women into full participation in the affairs of government and 
the activities of the Republican Party. We earnestly hope that Republican legis¬ 
latures in states which have not ye acted on the Suffrage Amendment will ratify 
the amendment, to the end that all of the women of the nation of voting age may 
participate in the election of 1920 which is so important to the welfare of our 
country. 

SOCIAL PROGRESS 

The supreme duty of the nation is the conservation of human resources 
through an enlightened measure of social and industrial justice. Although the 
federal jurisdiction over social problems is limited, they affect the welfare and 
interest of the nation as a whole. We pledge the Republican Party to the solution 
of these problems through national and state legislation in accordance with the 
best progressive thought of the country. 

EDUCATION AND HEALTH 

We endorse the principle of Federal aid to the States for the purposes of 
vocational and agricultural training. 

Wherever Federal money is devoted to education, such education must be so 
directed as to awaken in the youth the spirit of America and a sense of patriotic 
duty to the United States. 

A thorough system of physical education for all children up to the age of 19, 
including adequate health supervision and instruction, would remedy conditions 
revealed by the draft and would add to the economic and industrial strength of 
the nation. National leadership and stimulation will be necessary to induce the 
States to adopt a wise system of physical training. 

The public health activities of the Federal government are scattered through 
numerous departments and bureaus, resulting in inefficiency, duplication and ex¬ 
travagance. We advocate a greater centralization of the Federal functions, and 


REPUBLICAN PLATFORM 1920 55 

in addition urge the better co-ordination of the work of the Federal, State and 
local health agencies. 

CHILD LABOR 

The Republican Party stands for a Federal child labor law and for its rigid 
enforcement. If the present law be found unconstitutional or ineffective, we 
shall seek other means to enable Congress to prevent the evils of child labor. 

WOMEN IN INDUSTRY 

Women have special problems of employment which make necessary special 
study. We commend Congress for the permanent establishment of the Women’s 
Bureau in the United States Department of Labor to serve as a source of infor¬ 
mation to the States and to Congress. 

The principle of equal pay for equal service should be applied throughout 
all branches of the Federal government in which women are employed. 

Federal aid for vocational training should take into consideration the special 
aptitudes and needs of women workers. 

We demand Federal legislation to limit the hours of employment of women 
engaged in intensive industry, the product of which enters into interstate com¬ 
merce. 

HOUSING 

The housing shortage has not only compelled careful study of ways of stimu¬ 
lating building, but it has brought into relief the unsatisfactory character of the 
housing accommodations of large numbers of the inhabitants of our cities. A 
nation of home owners is the best guaranty of the maintenance of those princi¬ 
ples of liberty, law and order upon which our government is founded. Both 
national and state governments should encourage in all proper ways the acquir¬ 
ing of homes by our citizens. The United States Government should make avail¬ 
able the valuable information on housing and town planning collected during 
the war. This information should be kept up to date and made currently available. 

HAWAII 

For Hawaii we recommend Federal assistance in Americanizing and edu¬ 
cating their greatly disproportionate foreign population; home rule; and the 
rehabilitation of the Hawaiian race. 


Pointing to its history and relying on its fundamental principles, we declare 
that the Republican Party has the genius, courage and constructive ability to end 
executive usurpation and restore constitutional gqvernment; to fulfill our world 
obligations without sacrificing our national independence; to raise the national 
standards of education, health and general welfare; to re-establish a peace-time 
administration and to substitute economy and efficiency for extravagance and 
chaos; to restore and maintain the national credit; to reform unequal and bur¬ 
densome taxes; to free business from arbitrary and unnecessary official control; 
to suppress disloyalty without the denial of justice; to repel the arrogant chal¬ 
lenge of any class and to maintain a government of all the people as contrasted 
with government for some of the people, and finally, to allay unrest, suspicion 
and strife, and to secure the co-operation and unity of all citizens in the solution 
of the complex problems of the day; to the end that our country, happy and pros¬ 
perous, proud of its past, sure of itself and of its institutions, may look forward 
with confidence to the future. 



DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM 1920 


Adopted by the Democratic National Convention 
San Francisco, Cal., June, 1920 


The platform adopted by the Democratic Party at San Francisco is a prom¬ 
issory note and I shall see to it that it will be paid in full every dollar and every 
cent.—Governor James M. Cox, Democratic Nominee for President, in address 
at Columbus, Ohio, July 20, 1920. 


The Democratic Party, in its National Convention now assembled, sends 
greetings to the President of the United States, Woodrow Wilson, and hails with 
patriotic pride the great achievements for country and the world, wrought by a 
Democratic Administration under his leadership. 

It salutes the mighty people of this great republic, emerging with imperish¬ 
able honor, from the severe tests and grievous strains of the most tragic war in 
history, having earned the plaudits and the gratitude of all free nations. 

It declares its adherence to the fundamental progressive principles of social, 
economic and industrial justice and advance, and purposes to resume the great 
work of translating these principles into effective laws, begun and carried far 
by the Democratic Administration and interrupted only when the war claimed 
all the national energies for the single task of victory. 

LEAGUE OF NATIONS 

The Democratic Party favors The League of Nations as the surest, if not the 
only, practicable means of maintaining the peace of the world and terminating 
the insufferable burden of great military and naval establishments. It was for 
this that America broke away from traditional isolation and spent her blood and 
treasure to crush a colossal scheme of conquest. It was upon this basis that the 
President of the United States, in pre-arrangement with our Allies, consented to 
a suspension of hostilities against the Imperial German Government; the armis¬ 
tice was granted and a treaty of peace negotiated upon the definite assurance to 
Germany, as well as to the powers pitted against Germany, that “a general asso¬ 
ciation of nations must be formed, under specific covenant, for the purpose of 
affording mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity 
to great and small states alike.” Hence, we not only congratulate the President 
on the vision manifested and the vigor exhibited in the prosecution of the war, 
but we felicitate him and his associates on the exceptional achievement at Paris 
involved in the adoption of a League and Treaty so near akin to previously ex¬ 
pressed American ideals and so intimately related to the aspirations of civilized 
peoples everywhere. 

We commend the President for his courage and his high conception of good 
faith in steadfastly standing for the covenant agreed to by all the associated and 
allied nations at war with Germany, and we condemn the Republican Senate for 






DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM 1920 


57 


its refusal to ratify the Treaty merely because it was the product of Democratic 
statesmanship, thus interposing partisan envy and personal hatred in the way 
of the peace and renewed prosperity of the world. 

By every accepted standard of international morality the President is justi¬ 
fied in asserting that the honor of the country is involved in this business ; and 
we point to the accusing fact that, before it was determined to initiate political 
antagonism to the Treaty, the now Republican Chairman of the Senate Foreign 
Relations Committee himself publicly proclaimed that any proposition for a 
separate peace with Germany, such as he and his party associates thereafter re¬ 
ported to the Senate, would make us “guilty of the blackest crime.” 

On May 15 last, the Knox substitute for the Versailles Treaty was passed 
by the Republican Senate; and this Convention can contrive no more fitting 
characterization of its obloquoy than that made in the Forum magazine of June, 
1918, by Henry Cabot Lodge, when he said: 

“If we send our armies and young men abroad to be killed and wounded 
in northern France and Flanders with no result but this, our entrance into 
war with such an intention was a crime which nothing can justify. The in¬ 
tent of Congress and the intent of the President was that there could be no 
peace until we could create a situation where no such war as this could recur. 
We cannot make peace except in company with our allies. It would brand us 
with everlasting dishonor and bring ruin to us also if we undertook to make 
a separate peace.” 

Thus to that which Mr. Lodge, in saner moments, considered “the blackest 
crime” he and his party in madness sought to give the sanctity of law; that which 
eighteen months ago was of “everlasting dishonor” the Republican Party and its 
candidates today accept as the essence of faith. 

We endorse the President’s view of our international obligations and his 
firm stand against reservations designed to cut to pieces the vital provisions of 
the Versailles Treaty and we commend the Democrats in Congress for voting 
against resolutions for separate peace which would disgrace the nation. We ad¬ 
vocate the immediate ratification of the Treaty without reservations which would 
impair its essential integrity; but do not oppose the acceptance of any reserva¬ 
tions making clearer or more specific the obligations of the United States to the 
League Associates. Only by doing this may we retrieve the reputation of this 
nation among the powers of the earth and recover the moral leadership which 
President Wilson won and which Republican politicians at Washington sacrificed. 
Only by doing this may we hope to aid effectively in the restoration of order 
throughout the world and to take the place which we should assume in the front 
rank of spiritual, commercial and industrial advancement. 

We reject as utterly vain, if riot vicious, the Republican assumption that 
ratification of the Treaty and membership in the League of Nations would in 
any wise impair the integrity or independence of our country. The fact that the 
Covenant has been entered into by twenty-nine nations, all as jealous of their 
independence as we are of ours, is a sufficient refutation of such charge. The 
President repeatedly has declared, and this Convention reaffirms, that all our 
duties and obligations as a member of the League must be fulfilled in strict con¬ 
formity with the Constitution of the United States, embodied in which is the 
fundamental requirement of declaratory action by the Congress before this na¬ 
tion may become a participant in any war. 


58 


THE AMERICAN VOTER’S HANDBOOK 


CONDUCT OF THE WAR 

During the war President Wilson exhibited the very broadest conception of 
liberal Americanism. In his conduct of the war, as in the general administration 
of his high office, there was no semblance of partisan bias. He invited to W ash¬ 
ington as his councillors and coadjutors hundreds of the most prominent and 
pronounced Republicans in the country. To these he committed responsibilities 
of the gravest import and most confidential nature. Many of them had charge 
of vital activities of the Government. 

And yet, with the war successfully prosecuted and gloriously ended, the 
Republican Party in Congress, far from applauding the masterly leadership of 
the President and felicitating the country on the amazing achievements of the 
American Government, has meanly requited the considerate course of the chief 
magistrate by savagely defaming the Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy 
and by assailing nearly every public officer of every branch of the service inti¬ 
mately concerned in winning the war abroad and preserving the security of the 
Government at home. 

We express to the soldiers and sailors and marines of America the admira¬ 
tion of their fellow countrymen. Guided by the genius of such commanders as 
General John J. Pershing, the armed forces of America constituted a decisive 
factor in the victory and brought new lustre to the flag. 

We commend the patriotic men and women who sustained the efforts of their 
government in the crucial hours of the war and contributed to the brilliant ad¬ 
ministrative success achieved under the broad-visionecf leadership of the Presi¬ 
dent. 

FINANCIAL ACHIEVEMENTS 

A review of the record of the Democratic Party during the administration 
of Woodrow Wilson presents a chapter of substantial achievements unsurpassed 
in the history of the republic. For fifty years before the advent of this adminis¬ 
tration periodical convulsions had impeded the industrial progress of the Ameri¬ 
can people and caused inestimable loss and distress. By the enactment of the 
Federal Reserve Act the old system, which bred panics, was replaced by a new 
system, which insured confidence. It was an indispensible factor in winning the 
war, and today it is the hope and inspiration of business. Indeed, one vital dan¬ 
ger against which the American people should keep constantly on guard is the 
commitment of this system to partisan enemies who struggled against its adop¬ 
tion and vainly attempted to retain in the hands of speculative bankers a monop¬ 
oly of the currency credits of the Nation. Already there are well defined indica¬ 
tions of an assault upon the vital principles of the system in the event of Repub¬ 
lican success in the elections in November. 

Under Democratic leadership the American people successfully financed their 
stupendous part in the greatest war of all time. The Treasury wisely insisted 
during the war upon meeting an adequate portion of the war expenditure from 
current taxes and the bulk of the balance from popular loans, and, during the 
first full fiscal year after fighting stopped, upon meeting current expenditures 
from current receipts notwithstanding the new and unnecessary burden thrown 
upon the Treasury by the delay, obstruction- and extravagance of a Republican 
Congress. 

The non-partisan Federal Reserve authorities have been wholly free of po¬ 
litical interference or motive; and, in their own time and their own way, have 



DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM 1920 


59 


used courageously, though cautiously, the instruments, at their disposal to pre¬ 
vent undue expansion of credit in the country. As a result of these sound Treas¬ 
ury and Federal Reserve Policies, the inevitable war inflation has been held 
down to a minimum, and the cost of living has been prevented from increasing 
here in proportion to the increase in other belligerent countries and in neutral 
countries which are in close contact with the world’s commerce and exchanges. 

After a year and half of fighting in Europe, and despite another year and 
a half of Republican obstruction at home, the credit of the Government of the 
United States stands unimpaired, the Federal Reserve note is the unit of value 
throughout all the world, and the United States is the one great country in the 
world which maintains a free gold market. 

We condemn the attempt of the Republican Party to deprive the American 
people of their legitimate pride in the financing of the war—an achievement 
without parallel in the financial history of this or any other country, in this or 
any other war. And in particular we condemn the pernicious attempt of the 
Republican Party to create discontent among the holders of the bonds of the 
Government of the United States and to drag our public finance and our banking 
and currency system back into the arena of party politics. 

TAX REVISION 

We condemn the failure of the present Congress to respond to the oft- 
repeated demand of the President and the Secretaries of the Treasury to revise 
the existing tax laws. The continuance in force in peace times of taxes devised 
under pressure of imperative necessity to produce a revenue for war purposes 
is indefensible and can only result in lasting injury to the people. The Repub¬ 
lican Congress persistently failed, through sheer political cowardice, to make a 
single move toward a readjustment of tax laws which it denounced before the 
last election and was afraid to revise before the next election. 

We advocate tax reform and a searching revision of the War Revenue Acts 
to fit peace conditions so that the wealth of the nation may not be withdrawn 
from productive enterprise and diverted to wasteful or non-productive expen¬ 
diture. 

We demand prompt action by the next Congress for a complete survey of 
existing taxes and their modification and simplification with a view to secure 
greater equity and justice in tax burden and improvement in administration. 

PUBLIC ECONOMY 

Claiming to have effected great economies in Government expenditures, the 
Republican Party cannot show the reduction of one dollar in taxation as a corol¬ 
lary of this false pretence. In contrast, the last Democratic Congress enacted 
legislation reducing the taxes from eight billions, designed to be raised, to six 
billions for the first year after the armistice, and to four billions thereafter; 
and there the total is left undiminished by our political adversaries. Two years 
after Armistice Day a Republican Congress provides for expending the stupendous 
sum of $5,403,390,327.30. 

Affecting great paper economies by reducing departmental estimates of sums 
which would not have been spent in any event, and by reducing formal appro¬ 
priations, the Republican statement of expenditures omits the pregnant fact that 
the Congress authorized the use of one and a half billion dollars in the hands 
of various departments and bureaus, which otherwise would have been covered 


60 THE AMERICAN VOTER’S HANDBOOK 

into the Treasury, and which should be added to the Republican total of expen¬ 
ditures. 

HIGH COST OF LIVING 

The high cost of living and the depreciation of bond values in this country 
are primarily due to war itself, to the necessary governmental expenditures for 
the destructive purpose of war, to private extravagance, to the world shortage of 
capital, to the inflation of foreign currencies and credits and in large degree, to 
conscienceless profiteering. 

The Republican Party is responsible for the failure to restore peace and peace 
conditions in Europe, which is a principal cause of post-armistice inflation the 
world over. It has denied the demand of the President for necessary legislation 
to deal with secondary and local causes. The sound policies pursued by the 
Treasury and the Federal Reserve system have limited in this country, though 
they could not prevent, the inflation which was world-wide. 

Elected upon specific promises to curtail public expenditures and to bring 
the country back to a status of effective economy, the Republican Party in Con¬ 
gress wasted time and energy for more than a year in vain and extravagant in¬ 
vestigations, costing the tax-payers great sums of money, while revealing nothing 
beyond the incapacity of Republican politicians to cope with the problems. De¬ 
manding that the President, from his place at the Peace Table, call the Congress 
into extraordinary session for imperative purposes of readjustment, the Con¬ 
gress when convened spent thirteen months in partisan pursuits, failing to repeal 
a single war statute which harassed business or to initiate a single constructive 
measure to help business. It busied itself making a pre-election record of pre¬ 
tended thrift, having not one particle of substantial existence in fact. It raged 
against profiteers and the high cost of living without enacting a single statute to 
make the former afraid or doing a single act to bring the latter within limitations. 

The simple truth is that the high cost of living can only be remedied by in¬ 
creased production, strict governmental economy and a relentless pursuit of 
those who take advantage of post-war conditions and are demanding and re¬ 
ceiving outrageous profits. 

We pledge the Democratic Party to a policy of strict economy in government 
expenditures, and to the enactment and enforcement of such legislation as may 
be required to bring profiteers before the bar of criminal justice. 

THE TARIFF 

We reaffirm the traditional policy of the Democratic Party in favor of a 
tariff for revenue only and we confirm the policy of basing tariff revisions upon 
the intelligent research of a non-partisan commission, rather than upon the de¬ 
mands of selfish interests, temporarily held in abeyance. 

BUDGET 

In the interest of economy and good administration, we favor the creation 
of an effective budget system that will function in accord with the principles of 
the Constitution. The reform should reach both the executive and legislative 
aspects of the question. The supervision and preparation of the budget should 
be vested in the Secretary of the Treasury as the representative of the Presi¬ 
dent. The budget, as such, should not be increased by the Congress except by a 
two-thirds vote, each House, however, being free to exercise its constitutional 


DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM 1920 


61 


privilege of making appropriations through independent bills. The appropriation 
bills should be considered by single Committees of the House and Senate. The 
audit system should be consolidated and its powers expanded so as to pass upon 
the wisdom of, as well as the authority for, expenditures. 

A budget bill was passed in the closing days of the second session of the 
Sixty-sixth Congress which, invalidated by plain constitutional defects and de¬ 
faced by considerations of patronage, the President was obliged to veto. The 
House amended the bill to meet the Executive objection. We condemn the Re¬ 
publican Senate for adjourning without passing the amended measure, when by 
devoting an hour or two more to this urgent public business a budget system 
could have been provided. 

SENATE RULES 

We favor such alteration of the rules of procedure of the Senate of the United 
States as will permit the prompt transaction of the nation’s legislative business. 

AGRICULTURAL INTERESTS 

To the great agricultural interests of the country the Democratic Party does 
not find it necessary to make promises. It already is rich in its record of things 
actually accomplished. For nearly half a century of Republican rule not a sen¬ 
tence was written into the Federal Statutes affording one dollar of bank credits 
to the farming interest of America. In the first term of this Democratic admin¬ 
istration the National Bank Act was so altered as to authorize loans of five years 
maturity on improved farm lands. Later was established a system of farm loan 
banks, from which the borrowings already exceed three hundred millions of 
dollars and under which the interest rate to farmers has been so materially re¬ 
duced as to drive out of business the farm loan sharks who formerly subsisted by 
extortion upon the great agricultural interests of the country. 

Thus it was a Democratic Congress in the administration of a Democratic 
President which enabled the farmers of America for the first time to obtain credit 
upon reasonable terms and insured their opportunity for the future development 
of the nation’s agricultural resources. Tied up in Supreme Court proceedings, 
in a suit by hostile interests, the Federal Farm Loan system, originally opposed 
by the Republican candidate for the Presidency, appealed in vain to a Republican 
Congress for adequate financial assistance to tide over the interim between the 
beginning and the ending of the current year, awaiting a final decision of the 
highest court on the validity of the contested act. We pledge prompt and con¬ 
sistent support of sound and effective measures to sustain, amplify and perfect 
the Rural Credits Statutes and thus to check and reduce the growth and course of 
farm tenancy. 

Not only did the Democratic Party put into effect a great Farm Loan system 
of land mortgage banks, but it passed the Smith-Lever agricultural extension 
act, carrying to every farmer in every section of the country, through the medium 
of trained experts and by demonstration farms, the practical knowledge acquired 
by the Federal Agricultural Department in all things relating to agriculture, 
horticulture and animal life; it established the Bureau of Markets, the Bureau 
of Farm Management and passed the Cotton Futures Act, the Grain Grades bill, 
the Co-operative Farm Administration Act and the Federal Warehouse Act. 

The Democratic Party has vastly improved the rural mail system and has 
built up the parcel post system to such an extent as to render its activities and 


62 


THE AMERICAN VOTER’S HANDBOOK 


its practical service indispensable to the farming community. It was this wise 
encouragement and this effective concern of the Democratic Party for the farmers 
of the United States that enabled this great interest to render such essential 
service in feeding the armies of America and the allied nations of the war and 
succoring starving populations since Armistice Day. 

Meanwhile the Republican leaders at Washington have failed utterly to pro¬ 
pose one single measure to make rural life more tolerable. They have signalized 
their fifteen months of Congressional power by urging schemes which would 
strip the farms of labor; by assailing the principles of the Farm Loan system and 
seeking to impair its efficiency; by covertly attempting to destroy the great 
nitrogen plant at Muscle Shoals upon which the government has expended $70,- 
000,000 to supply American farmers with fertilizers at reasonable cost; by ruth¬ 
lessly crippling nearly every branch of agricultural endeavor, literally cramp¬ 
ing the productive mediums through which the people must be fed. 

We favor such legislation as will confirm to the primary producers of the 
nation the right of collective bargaining and the right of co-operative handling 
and marketing of the products of the workshop and the farm and such legisla¬ 
tion as will facilitate the exportation of our farm products. 

We favor comprehensive studies of farm production costs and the uncen¬ 
sored publication of facts found in such studies. 

LABOR AND INDUSTRY 

The Democratic Party is now, as ever, the firm friend of honest labor and 
the promoter of progressive industry. It established, the Department of Labor at 
Washington and a Democratic President called to his official council board the 
first practical workingman who ever held a cabinet portfolio. Under this ad¬ 
ministration have been established employment bureaus to bring the man and 
the job together; have been peaceably determined many bitter disputes between 
capital and labor; were passed the child-labor act, the workingman’s compen¬ 
sation act (the extension of which we advocate so as to include laborers en¬ 
gaged in loading and unloading ships and in interstate commerce), the eight- 
hour law, the act for vocational training and a code of other wholesome laws 
affecting the liberties and bettering the conditions of the laboring classes. In the 
Department of Labor the Democratic Administration established a Woman’s 
Bureau, which a Republican Congress destroyed by withholding appropriations. 

Labor is not a commodity; it is human. Those who labor have rights and 
the national security and safety depend upon a just recognition of those rights 
and the conservation of the strength of the workers and their families in the in¬ 
terest of sound-hearted and sound-headed men ,women and children. Laws regu¬ 
lating hours of labor and conditions under which labor is performed, when passed 
in recognition of the conditions under which life must be lived to attain the high¬ 
est development and happiness, are just assertions of the national interest in the 
welfare of the people. 

At the same time, the nation depends upon the products of labor; a cessation 
of production means a loss and, if long continued, disaster. The whole people, 
therefore, have a right to insist that justice shall be done to those who work, 
and in turn that those whose labor creates the necessities upon which the life of 
the nation depends must recognize the reciprocal obligation between the worker 
and the State. They should participate in the formulation of sound laws and 
regulations governing the conditions under which labor is performed, recognize 
and obey the laws so formulated and seek their amendment when necessary by 


DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM 1920 63 

the processes ordinarily addressed to the laws and regulations affecting the other 
relations of life. 

Labor, as well as capital, is entitled to adequate compensation. Each has 
the indefeasible right of organization, of collective bargaining and of speaking 
through representatives of their own selection. Neither class, however, should 
at any time nor in any circumstances take action that will put in jeopardy the 
public welfare. Resort to strikes and lockouts which endanger the health or 
lives of the people is an unsatisfactory device for determining disputes, and the 
Democratic Party pledges itself to contrive, if possible, and put into effective 
operation a fair and comprehensive method of composing differences of this 
nature. 

In private industrial disputes, we are opposed to compulsory arbitration as a 
method plausible in theory but a failure in fact. With respect to government 
service, we hold distinctly that the rights of the people are paramount to the 
right to strike. However, we profess scrupulous regard for the conditions of 
public employment and pledge the Democratic Party to instant inquiry into the 
pay of Government employes and equally speedy regulations designed to bring 
salaries to a just and proper level. 

WOMAN SUFFRAGE 

We endorse the proposed 19th Amendment of the Constitution of the United 
States granting equal suffrage to women. We congratulate the legislatures of 
the 35 States which have already ratified said Amendment and we urge the Demo¬ 
cratic Governors and legislatures of Tennessee, North Carolina and Florida and 
such States as have not yet ratified the Federal Suffrage Amendment to unite 
in an effort to complete the process of ratification and secure the 36th State in 
time for all the women of the United States to participate in the Fall election. 
We commend the effective advocacy of the measure by President Wilson. 

WELFARE OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN 

• 

We urge cooperation with the States for the protection of child life through 
infancy and maternity care; in the prohibition of child labor and by adequate 
appropriations for the Children’s Bureau and the Woman’s Bureau in the De¬ 
partment of Labor. 

WOMEN IN INDUSTRY 

We advocate full representation of women on all commissions dealing with 
women’s work or women’s interests and a reclassification of the Federal Civil 
Service free from discrimination on the ground of sex; a continuance of appro¬ 
priations for education in sex hygiene; Federal legislation which shall insure 
that American women residents in the United States, but married to aliens, shall 
retain their American citizenship and that the same process of naturalization 
shall be required for women as for men. 

EDUCATION 

Co-operative Federal assistance to the States is immediately required for 
the removal of illiteracy, for the increase of teachers’ salaries and instruction 
in citizenship for both native and foreign-born ; increased appropriation for voca¬ 
tional training in home economics, re-establishment of joint Federal and State 
employment service with women’s departments under the direction of technically 
qualified women. 


64 


THE AMERICAN VOTER’S HANDBOOK 


DISABLED SOLDIERS 

The Federal Government should treat with the utmost consideration every 
disabled soldier, sailor and marine of the world war, whether his disability be 
due to wounds received in line of action or to health impaired in service; and 
for the dependents of the brave men who died in line of duty the government’s 
tenderest concern and richest bounty should be their requital. The fine patriot¬ 
ism exhibited, the heroic conduct displayed by American soldiers, sailors and 
marines at home and abroad, constitute a sacred heritage of posterity, the worth 
of which can never be recompensed from the Treasury and the glory of which 
must not be diminished. 

The Democratic Administration wisely established a War Risk Insurance 
Bureau, giving four and a half millions of enlisted men insurance at unprecedent¬ 
edly low rates and through the medium of which compensation of men and women 
injured in service is readily adjusted, and hospital facilities for those whose 
health is impaired are abundantly afforded. 

The Federal Board for Vocational Education should be made a part of the 
War Risk Insurance Bureau, in order that the task may be treated as a whole, 
and this machinery of protection and assistance must receive every aid of law 
and appropriation necessary to full and effective operation. 

We believe that no higher or more valued privilege can be afforded to an 
American citizen than to become a freeholder in the soil of the United States and 
to that end we pledge our party to the enactment of soldier settlements and home 
aid legislation which will afford to the men who fought for America the oppor¬ 
tunity to become land and home owners under conditions affording genuine Gov¬ 
ernment assistance unencumbered by needless difficulties of red tape or advance 
financial investment. 

THE RAILROADS 

The railroads were subjected to Federal control as a war measure without 
other idea than the swift transport of troops, munitions and supplies. When 
human life and national hopes were at stake profits could not be considered and 
were not. Federal operation, however, was marked by an intelligence and effic¬ 
iency that minimized loss and resulted in many and marked reforms. The 
equipment taken over was not only grossly inadequate, but shamefully outworn. 
Unification practices overcame these initial handicaps and provided additions, 
betterments and improvements. Economies enabled operation without the rate 
raises that private control would have found necessary, and labor was treated 
with an exact justice that secured the enthusiastic co-operation that victory de¬ 
manded. The fundamental purpose of Federal control was achieved fully and 
splendidly, and at far less cost to the taxpayer than would have been the case 
under private operation. Investments in railroad properties were not only saved 
by Government operation, but Government management returned these properties 
vastly improved in every physical and executive detail. A great task was greatly 
discharged. 

The President’s recommendation of return to private ownership gave the Re¬ 
publican majority a full year in which to enact the necessary legislation. The 
House took six months to formulate its ideas, and another six months was con¬ 
sumed by the Republican Senate in equally vague debate. As a consequence, 
the Esch-Cununins bill went to the President in the closing hours of the time 


DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM 1920 


65 


limit prescribed, and he was forced to a choice between the chaos of a veto and 
acquiescence in the measure submitted however grave may have been his objec¬ 
tions to it. 

There should be a fair and complete test of the law and until careful and 
mature action by Congress may cure its defects and insure a thoroughly effective 
transportation system under private ownership without Government subsidy at 
the expense of the taxpayers of the country. 

IMPROVED HIGHWAYS 

Improved roads are of vital importance not only to commerce and industry, 
but also to agriculture and rural life. The Federal Road Act of 1916, enacted by 
a Democratic Congress, represented the first systematic effort of the Government 
to insure the building of an adequate system of roads in this country. The act, 
as amended, has resulted in placing the movement for improved highways on a 
progressive and substantial basis in every State in the Union and in bringing 
under actual construction more than 13,000 miles of roads suited to the traffic 
needs of the communities in which they are located. 

We favor a continuance of the present Federal aid plan under existing 
Federal and State agencies amended so as to include as one of the elements in 
determining the ratio in which the several states shall be entitled to share in the 
fund, the area of any public lands therein. 

Inasmuch as the postal service has been extended by the Democratic Party 
to the door of practically every producer and every consumer in the country 
(rural free delivery alone having been provided for 6,000,000 additional patrons 
within the past eight years without material added cost), we declare that this in¬ 
strumentality can and will be used to the maximum of its capacity to improve 
the efficiency of distribution and reduce the cost of living to consumers while 
increasing the profitable operations of producers. 

We strongly favor the increased use of the motor vehicle in the transporta¬ 
tion of the mails and urge the removal of the restrictions imposed by the Repub¬ 
lican Congress on the use of motor devices in mail transportation in rural terri¬ 
tories. 

MERCHANT MARINE 

We desire to congratulate the American people upon the re-birth of our 
Merchant Marine which once more maintains its former place in the world. It 
was under a Democratic Administration that this was accomplished after seventy 
years of indifference and neglect, thirteen million tons having been constructed 
since the act was passed in 1916. We pledge the policy of our party to the con¬ 
tinued growth of our Merchant Marine under proper legislation so that American 
products will be carried to all ports of the world by vessels built in American 
Yards, flying the American Flag. 

PORT FACILITIES 

The urgent demands of the war for adequate transportation of war material 
as well as for domestic need, revealed the fact that our port facilities and rate 
adjustment were such as to seriously affect the whole country in times of peace 
as well as war. 

We pledge our party to stand for equality of rates, both import and export, 
for the ports of the country, to the end that there may be adequate and fair 


66 THE AMERICAN VOTER’S HANDBOOK 

facilities and rates for the mobilization of the products of the country offered 
for shipment. 


INLAND WATERWAYS 

We call attention to the failure of the Republican National Convention to 
recognize in any way the rapid development of barge transportation on our in¬ 
land waterways, which development is the result of the constructive policies of 
the Democratic administration. And we pledge ourselves to the further develop¬ 
ment of adequate transportation facilities on our rivers and to the further im¬ 
provement of our' inland waterways; and we recognize the importance of con¬ 
necting the Great Lakes with the sea by way of the Mississippi River and its 
tributaries, as well as by the St. Lawrence River. We favor an enterprising 
Foreign Trade Policy with all nations, and in this connection we favor the full 
utilization of all Atlantic, Gulf and Pacific Ports, and an equitable distribution 
of shipping facilities between the various ports. 

Transportation remains an increasingly vital problem in the continued de¬ 
velopment and prosperity of the Nation. 

Our present facilities for distribution by rail are inadequate and the promo¬ 
tion of transportation by water is imperative. 

We therefore favor a liberal and comprehensive policy for development and 
utilization of our harbors and interior waterways. 

FLOOD CONTROL 

We commend the Democratic Congress for the redemption of the pledge 
contained in our last platform by the passage of the Flood Control Act of March 
1, 1917, and point to the successful control of floods of the Mississippi River and 
the Sacramento River, California, under the policy of that law, for its complete 
justification. We favor the extension of this policy to other flood control prob¬ 
lems wherever the federal interest involved justifies the expenditure required. 

RECLAMATION OF ARID LANDS 

By wise legislation and progressive administration, we have transformed 
the Government reclamation projects, representing an investment of $100,000,000, 
from a condition of impending failure and loss of confidence in the ability of the 
Government to carry through such large enterprises, to a condition of demon¬ 
strated success, whereby formerly arid and wholly unproductive lands now sus¬ 
tain 40,000 prosperous families and have an annual crop production of over $70,- 
000,000, not including the crops grown on a million acres outside the projects 
supplied with storage water from Government works. 

We favor ample appropriations for the continuation and extension of this 
great work of home-building and internal improvement along the same general 
lines, to the end that all practical projects shall be built, and waters now run¬ 
ning to waste shall be made to provide homes and add to the food supply, power 
resources, and taxable property, with the Government ultimately reimbursed for 
the entire outlay. 


THE TRADE COMMISSION 

The Democratic Party heartily endorses the creation and work of the Fed¬ 
eral Trade Commission in establishing a fair field for competitive business, free 
from restraints of trade and monopoly, and recommends amplification of the 


DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM 1920 


67 


statutes governing its activities so as to grant it authority to prevent the unfair 
use of patents in restraint of trade. 

LIVE STOCK MARKETS 

For the purpose of insuring just and fair treatment in the great interstate 
live stock market, and thus instilling confidence in growers through which pro¬ 
duction will be stimulated and the price of meats to consumers be ultimately 
reduced, we favor the encatment of legislation for the supervision of such mar¬ 
kets by the national Government. 

MEXICO 

The United States is the neighbor and friend of the nations of the three 
Americas. In a very special sense, our international relations in this hemisphere 
should be characterized by good will and free from any possible suspicion as to 
our national purpose. 

The Administration, remembering always that Mexico is an independent na¬ 
tion and that permanent stability in her government and her institutions could 
come only from the consent of her own people to a government of their own mak¬ 
ing, has been unwilling either to profit by the misfortunes of the people of 
Mexico or to enfeeble their future by imposing from the outside a rule upon 
their temporarily distracted councils. As a consequence, order is gradually re¬ 
appearing in Mexico; at no time in many years have American lives and inter¬ 
ests been so safe as they now are; peace reigns along the border and industry 
is resuming. 

When the new Government of Mexico shall have given ample proof of its 
ability permanently to maintain law and order, signified its willingness to meet 
its international obligations and written upon its statute books just laws under 
which foreign investors shall have rights as well as duties, that Government 
should receive our recognition and sympathetic assistance. Until these proper 
expectations have been met, Mexico must realize the propriety of a policy that 
asserts the right of the United States to demand full protection for its citizens. 

PETROLEUM 

The Democratic Party recognizes the importance of the acquisition by 
Americans of additional sources of supply of petroleum and other minerals and 
declares that such acquisition both at home and abroad should be fostered and 
encouraged. We urge such action, legislative and executive, as may secure to 
American citizens the same rights in the acquirement of mining rights in foreign 
countries as are enjoyed by the citizens or subjects of any other nation. 

NEW NATIONS 

The Democratic Party expresses its active sympathy with the people of 
China, Czecho-Slovakia, Finland, Jugo-Slava, Poland, Persia and others who 
have recently established representative government and who are striving to 
develop the institutions of true Democracy. 

IRELAND 

The great principle of national self-determination has received constant 
reiteration as one of the chief objectives for which this country entered the war 
and victory established this principle. 


68 


THE AMERICAN VOTER’S HANDBOOK 


Within the limitations of international comity and usage, this Convention 
repeats the several previous expressions of the sympathy of the Democratic Party 
of the United States for the aspirations of Ireland for self-government 

ARMENIA 

We express our deep and earnest sympathy for the unfortunate people of 
Armenia, and we believe that our government, consistent with its constitution 
and principles, should render every possible and proper aid to them in their 
efforts to establish and maintain a government of their own. 

THE PHILIPPINES 

We favor the granting of independence without unnecessary delay to the 10,- 
500,000 inhabitants of the Philippine Islands. 

HAWAII 

We favor a liberal policy of homesteading public lands in Hawaii to pro¬ 
mote a larger middle-class citizen population, with equal rights to all citizens. 

The importance of Hawaii as an outpost on the Western Frontier of the 
United States demands adequate appropriations by Congress for the develop¬ 
ment of our harbors and highways there. 

PORTO RICO 

We favor granting to the people of Porto Rico the traditional territorial form 
of government, with a view to ultimate statehood, accorded to all territories of 
the United States since the beginning of our government, and we believe that 
the officials appointed to administer the government of such territories should be 
qualified by previous bona fide residence therein. 

ALASKA 

We commend the Democratic Administration for inaugurating a new policy 
as to Alaska as evidenced by the construction of the Alaska railroad and open¬ 
ing of the coal and oil fields. 

We declare for the modification of the existing coal land law, to promote 
development without disturbing the features intended to prevent monopoly. 

For such changes in the policy of forestry control as will permit the imme¬ 
diate initiation of the paper pulp industry. 

For relieving the territory from the evils of long-distance government by 
arbitrary and interlocking bureaucratic regulation, and to that end we urge the 
speedy passage of a law containing the essential features of the Lane-Curry bill 
now pending co-ordinating and consolidating all federal control of natural re¬ 
sources under one department to be administered by a non-partisan board per¬ 
manently resident in the territory. 

For the fullest measure of territorial self-government with the view to ulti¬ 
mate statehood, with jurisdiction over all matters not of purely federal concern, 
including fisheries and game, and for an intelligent administration of federal 
control we believe that all officials appointed should be qualified by previous bona 
fide residence in the territory. 

For a comprehensive system of road construction with increased appropria¬ 
tions and the full extension of the Federal Road Aid Act to Alaska. 

For the extension to Alaska of the Federal Farm Loan Act. 


DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM 1920 


69 


ASIATIC IMMIGRANTS 

The policy of the United States with reference to the non-admission of 
Asiatic Immigrants is a true expression of the judgment of our people, and to 
the several states whose geographical situation or internal conditions make this 
policy and the enforcement of the laws enacted pursuant thereto of particular 
concern, we pledge our support 

THE POSTAL SERVICE 

The efficiency of the Post Office Department has been vindicated against a 
malicious and designing assault by the efficiency of its operation. Its record 
refutes its assailants. Their voices are silenced and their charges have collapsed. 

We commend the work of the Joint Commission on the Re-classification of 
Salaries of Postal Employees, recently concluded, which Commission was created 
by a Democratic administration.' The Democratic Party has always favored 
and will continue to favor the fair and just treatment of all Government em¬ 
ployees. 

FREE SPEECH AND PRESS 

We resent the unfounded reproaches directed against the Democratic Ad¬ 
ministration for alleged interference with the freedom of the press and freedom 
of speech. 

No utterance from any quarter has been assailed, and no publication has 
been repressed which has not been animated by treasonable purpose, and directed 
against the nation’s peace, order and security in time of war. 

We reaffirm our respect for the great principles of free speech and a free 
press, but assert as an indisputable proposition that they afford no toleration of 
enemy propaganda or the advocacy of the overthrow of the Government of the 
state or nation by force or violence. . 

REPUBLICAN CORRUPTION 

The shocking disclosure of the lavish use of money by aspirants for the Re- - 
publican nomination for the highest office in the gift of the people has created a 
painful impression throughout the country. Viewed in connection with the re¬ 
cent conviction of a Republican Senator from the State of Michigan for the 
criminal transgression of the law limiting expenditures on behalf of a candi¬ 
date for the United States Senate, it indicates the re-entry, under Republican 
auspices, of money as an influential factor in elections, thus nullifying the letter 
and flaunting the spirit of numerous laws, enacted by the people, to protect the 
ballot from the contamination of corrupt practices. We deplore these delin¬ 
quencies and invoke their stern popular rebuke, pledging our earnest efforts to a 
strengthening of the present statutes against corrupt practices, and their rigor¬ 
ous enforcement. 

We remind the people that it was only by the return of a Republican Sena¬ 
tor in Michigan, who is now under conviction and sentence for the criminal mis¬ 
use of money in his election, that the present organization of the Senate with a 
Republican majority was made possible. 

CONCLUSION 

Believing that we have kept the Democratic faith and resting our claims to 
the confidence of the people not upon grandiose promises, but upon the solid 
performances of our party, we submit our record to the nation’s consideration 
and ask that the pledges of this platform be appraised in the light of that record. 


PLATFORM OF 

THE PROHIBITION PARTY 1920 


Adopted by the Prohibition National Convention 
Lincoln, Nebraska, July 22, 1920 


The Prohibition Party assembled in National Convention in the city of Lin¬ 
coln, Nebraska, on this twenty-second day of July, 1920, expresses its thanks to 
Almighty God for the victory over the beverage liquor traffic which crowns fifty 
years of consecrated effort. The principles which we have advocated throughout 
our history have been so far recognized that the manufacture and traffic in intoxi¬ 
cating drink have been forever prohibited in the fundamental law of the land; 
Congress has rightly interpreted the Eighteenth Amendment in laws enacted for 
its enforcement; and the Supreme Court has- upheld both the Amendment and 
the law. 

Asking that it be clothed with governmental power, the Prohibition Party 
challenges the attention of the Nation and requests the votes of the people on 
this Declaration of Principles. 

NULLIFICATION CONDEMNED 

The organized liquor traffic is engaged in a treasonable attempt to nullify 
the Amendment by such modification of the enforcement act as will increase the 
alcoholic content in beer and wine and thus thwart the will of the people as con¬ 
stitutionally expressed. 

In the face of this open threat the Republican and Democratic parties re¬ 
fused to make platform declarations in favor of law enforcement, though peti¬ 
tioned so to do by multitudes of people. Thus the Prohibition Party remains the 
sole political champion of National Prohibition. 

The Prohibition Party in its platform in 1872 declared: “There can be no 
greater peril to the nation than the existing party competition for the liquor vote; 
any party not openly opposed to the traffic, experience shows, will engage in this 
competition, will court the favor of the criminal classes, will barter away the 
public morals, the purity of the ballot, and every object of good government for 
party success.” Notwithstanding the liquor traffic is now outlawed by the Con¬ 
stitution this fitly describes the present political attitude of the old parties. 

The issue is not only the ENFORCEMENT but also the MAINTENANCE 
of the law to make the Amendment effective. 

The proposed increase in the alcoholic content of beverages would be fraught 
with grave danger in that it would mean the return of the open saloon with all 
its attendant evils. 

THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 

The League of Nations is now in existence and is functioning in world affairs. 
We favor the entrance of the United States into the League by the immediate 




PROHIBITION PLATFORM 1920 


71 


ratification of the treaty of peace, not objecting to reasonable reservations inter¬ 
preting American understanding of the covenant. The time is past when the 
United States can hold aloof from the affairs of the world. Such course is short¬ 
sighted and only invites disaster. 


PEACE 

We stand for a constitutional amendment providing that treaties of peace 
shall be ratified by a majority of both Houses of Congress. 

We stand by our declaration of 1916 against militarism and universal mili¬ 
tary training. Without it our boys were in a short time trained to whip the 
greatest army ever assembled and with national prohibition to make sure the 
most virile manhood in the world we should encourage universal disarmament 
and devotion to the acts of peace. 


EDUCATION 

We stand for compulsory education with instruction in the English language, 
which, if given in private or parochial schools must be equivalent to that afforded 
by the public schools, and be under state supervision. 

SUFFRAGE 

The Prohibition Party has long advocated the enfranchisement of women. 
Suffrage should not be conditioned upon sex. We congratulate the women upon 
the freedom which the Party'has helped them to achieve. 

WOMAN AND THE HOME 

We approve and adopt the program of the National League of Women Voters 
providing for: 

The prohibition of child labor; 

Adequate appropriation for the Children’s Bureau; 

Protection for infant life through a federal program for maternity and infancy 
care; 

A Federal department of education, Federal aid for the removal of illiteracy and 
the increase of teacher’s salaries; 

Instruction of the youth and the newcomer to our shores in the duties and ideals 
of citizenship. 

Vocational training in home economics ; 

Federal supervision of the marketing and distribution of food, the enactment and 
enforcement of such measures as will open the channels of trade, prevent ex¬ 
cess profits, and eliminate unfair competition and control of the necessities of 
life; 

The establishment of a Woman’s Bureau in the Department of Labor to deter¬ 
mine standards and policies which will improve working conditions for women 
knd increase their efficiency. 

The appointment of women in the mediation and conciliation service and on any 
industrial commissions and tribunals which may be created; 

The establishment of a joint Federal and State employment service with women’s 
departments under the direction of qualified women;' 

The merit system in the Civil Service free from discrimination on account of sex 
with a wage scale determined by skill demanded for the work and in no wise 
below the cost of living as established by official investigation; 


72 


THE AMERICAN VOTER’S HANDBOOK 


Appropriation to carry on a campaign against venereal diseases and for public 
education in sex hygiene; 

Federal legislation permitting an American born woman to retain her citizenship 
while resident in the United States, though married to an alien; 

And further, that an alien woman who marries an American citizen must take the 
obligation of citizenship before she can become a citizen. 

ECONOMY IN ADMINISTRATION 

We believe in the Budget system and we stand for economy in governmental 
administration. There should be a reduction in boards, committees, commissions 
and offices which consume taxes and increase expenses. 

LABOR AND INDUSTRY 

We stand for Industrial Peace. We believe the time has come for the gov¬ 
ernment to assume responsibility for the protection of the public- against the 
waste and terror of industrial warfare, and to that end we demand legislation 
defining the rights of labor and the creation of industrial courts, which will guar¬ 
antee to labor and employing capital equal and exact justice, and to the general 
public protection against the paralysis of industry due to this warfare. 

PROFITEERING 

The Prohibition Party pledges the nation to rid it of the profiteer and to close 
the door against his return. It will endeavor to eliminate all unnecessary mid¬ 
dlemen by the encouragement of organizations among producers that will bring 
those who sell and those who use nearer together. It will enact and enforce laws 
needful to effectively prevent excessive charges by such middlemen. To this end 
it will demand legislation subjecting to the penalties of the criminal law all 
corporate officers and employees who give or carry out instructions that result 
in extortion; it will make it unlawful for anyone engaged in Interstate Com¬ 
merce to make the sale of one article dependent upon the purchase of another 
article and it will require such corporation to disclose to customers the difference 
between cost price and selling price or limit the profit that can be legally charged 
as the rate of interest is now limited. 

AGRICULTURE 

We pledge our aid to the farmer in working out a plan to equalize prices, to 
secure labor, and to organize a system of co-operative marketing, including public 
terminals, mills and storage for the purpose of encouraging agriculture and se¬ 
curing for the farmer such return as will tend to increased production. 

We favor such extension of the parcel post as will further facilitate the direct 
traffic between the producer and consumer. 

PRESIDENTIAL QUALIFICATIONS 

The qualifications for President stated in the Constitution have to do with 
age and citizenship. We call attention to the fact that of greater importance are 
those not so stated referring to moral, intellectual and spiritual endowments. The 
President of the United States in his daily life, his home and family relationships 
and in his official career is expected to typify the finest and best the country can 
produce. He is the leader of the nation. The moral force and power of his ex¬ 
ample are immeasurable. No man or woman should ever be elected to the high 


PROHIBITION PLATFORM 1920 


73 


office who is out of harmony with the purposes of the people or who lacks 
sympathy with their highest and holiest ideals, and with the Christian principles 
upon which the nation was founded. 

LAW AND ORDER 

A crying evil of the day is the general lax enforcement of law. Without 
obedience to law and maintenance of order our American institutions must perish. 

The Prohibition Party now, as ever, pledges impartial enforcement of all law. 

CONCLUSION 

In this national and world crisis the Prohibition Party reminds the people of 
its long time faithfulness and its wisdom, proved by the many reforms which it 
was the first to advocate; and on its record as the oldest minority party— one 
which has never sold its birthright for a mess of pottage but throughout the years 
has stood for the best interests of the country—it asks the favorable consideration 
of the voters, believing that by its support they can make it necessary for all 
political organizations to come up to a higher level and to render a finer quality 
of service. 

It pledges itself resolutely to stand for the right and oppose the wrong and 

dauntlessly to lead in the advocacy of righteous and patriotic principles. On 

# 

its record and on this Declaration of Principles it submits its case to the Ameri¬ 
can people. 


NATIONAL PLATFORM, SOCIALIST 

PARTY 1920 


In the national campaign of 1920 the Socialist Party calls upon all American 
workers of hand and brain, and upon all citizens who believe in political liberty 
and social justice, to free the country from the oppressive misrule of the old 
political parties, and to take the government into their own hands under the 
banner and upon the program of the Socialist Party. 

The outgoing administration, like Democratic and Republican administra¬ 
tions of the past, leaves behind it a disgraceful record of solemn pledges un¬ 
scrupulously broken and public confidence ruthlessly betrayed. 

It obtained the suffrage of the people on a platform of peace, liberalism and 
social betterment, but drew the country into a devastating war, and inaugurated 
a regime of despotism, reaction and oppression unsurpassed in the annals of the 
republic. 

It promised to the American people a treaty which would assure to the world 
a reign of international right and true democracy. It gave its sanction and sup¬ 
port to an infamous pact formulated behind closed doors by predatory elder 
statesmen of European and Asiatic Imperialism. Under this pact territories have 
been annexed against the will of their populations and cut off from their source 
of sustenance; nations seeking their freedom in the exercise of the much heralded 
right of self-determination, have been brutally fought with armed force, intrigue 
and starvation blockades. 

To the millions of young men, who staked their lives on the field of battle, to 
the people of the country who gave unstintingly of their toil and property to sup¬ 
port the war, the Democratic administration held out the sublime ideal of a union 
of the peoples of the world organized to maintain perpetual peace among nations 
on the basis of justice and freedom. It helped create a reactionary alliance of 
imperialistic governments, banded together to bully weak nations, crush working- 
class governments and perpetuate strife and. warfare. 

While thus furthering the ends of reaction, violence and oppression abroad, 
our administration suppressed the cherished and fundamental rights and civil 
liberties at home. 

Upon the pretext of war-time necessity, the Chief Executive of the republic, 
and the appointed heads of his administration were clothed with dictatorial pow¬ 
ers (which were often exercised arbitrarily), and Congress enacted laws in open 
and direct violation of the constitutional safeguards of freedom of expression. 

Hundreds of citizens who raised their voices for the maintenance of political 
and industrial rights during the war, were indicted under the Espionage law, 
tried in an atmosphere of prejudice and hysteria, and many of them are now 
serving inhumanly long jail sentences for daring to uphold the traditions of liber¬ 
ty which once were sacred in this country. 

Agents of the Federal Government unlawfully raided homes and meeting 
places and prevented or broke up peaceable gatherings of citizens. 



SOCIALIST PLATFORM 1920 


75 


The postmaster-general established a censorship of the press more autocratic 
than ever tolerated in a regime of absolutism, and has harassed and destroyed 
publications on account of their advanced political and economic views, by ex¬ 
cluding them from the mails. 

And after the war was in fact long over, the administration has not scrupled 
to continue a policy of repression and terrorism under the shadow and hypo¬ 
critical guise of war-time measures. 

It has practically imposed involuntary servitude and peonage on a large 
class of American workers by denying them the right to quit work and coercing 
them into acceptance of inadequate wages and onerous conditions of labor. It 
has dealt a foul blow to the traditional American right of asylum by deporting 
hundreds of foreign born workers by administrative order, on the mere sus¬ 
picion of harboring radical views, and often for the sinister purpose of breaking 
labor strikes. 

In the short span of three years our self-styled liberal administration has suc¬ 
ceeded in undermining the very foundation of political liberty and economic rights, 
which this republic has built up in more than a century of struggle and progress. 

Under the cloak of a false and hypocritical patriotism and under the protec¬ 
tion of governmental terror the Democratic administration has given the ruling 
classes unrestrained license to plunder the people by intensive exploitation of 
labor, by the extortion of enormous profits, and by increasing the cost of all neces¬ 
sities of life. Profiteering has become reckless and rampant, billions have been 
coined by the capitalists out of the suffering and misery of their fellow men. 
The American financial oligarchy has become a dominant factor in the world, 
while the condition of the American workers has grown more precarious. 

The responsibility does not rest upon the Democratic party alone. The Re¬ 
publican party through its representatives in Congress and otherwise, has not only 
openly condoned the political misdeeds of the last three years, but has sought 
to outdo its Democratic rival in the orgy of political reaction and repression. 
Its criticism of the Democratic administrative policy is that it is not reactionary 
and drastic enough. 

America is now at the parting of the roads. If the outraging of political 
liberty, and concentration of economic power into the hands of the few is per¬ 
mitted to go on, it can have only one consequence, the reduction of the country 
to a state of absolute capitalist despotism. 

We particularly denounce the militaristic policy of both old parties of in¬ 
vesting countless hundreds of millions of dollars in armaments after the victor¬ 
ious completion of what was to have been the “last war.” We call attention to 
the fatal results of such a program in Europe, carried on prior to 1914, and cul¬ 
minating in the Great War; we declare that such a policy, adding unbearable 
burdens to the working class and to all the people, can lead only to the complete 
Prussianization of the nation, and ultimately to war; and we demand immediate 
and complete abandonment of this fatal program. 

The Socialist Party sounds the warning. It calls upon the people to 1 defeat 
both parties at the polls, and to elect the candidates of the Socialist Party to the 
end of restoring political democracy and bringing about complete industrial 
freedom. 

The Socialist Party of the United States therefore summons all who believe 
in this fundamental doctrine to prepare for a complete reorganization of our 


76 


THE AMERICAN VOTER’S HANDBOOK 


social system, based upon public ownership of public necessities; upon govern¬ 
ment by representatives chosen from occupational as well as from geographical 
groups, in harmony with our industrial development; and with citizenship based 
on service; that we may end forever the exploitation of class by class. 

To achieve this end the Socialist Party pledges itself to the following pro¬ 
gram : 

1. SOCIAE 

1. All business vitally essential for the existence and welfare of the people, 
such as railroads, express service, steamship lines, telegraphs, mines, oil wells, 
power plants, elevators, packing houses, cold storage plants and all indus¬ 
tries operating on a national scale, should be taken over by the nation. 

2. All publicly owned industries should be administered jointly by the 
government and representatives of the workers, not for revenue of profit, but 
with the sole object of securing just compensation and humane conditions of em¬ 
ployment to the workers and efficient and reasonable service to the public. 

3. All banks should be acquired by the government, and incorporated in a 
unified public banking system. 

4. The business of insurance should be taken over by the government, and 
should be extended to include insurance against accident, sickness, invalidity, old 
age and unemployment, without contribution on the part of the worker. 

5. Congress' should enforce the provisions of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth 
and Fifteenth Amendments with reference to the Negroes, and effective federal 
legislation should be enacted to secure to the Negroes full civil, political, indus¬ 
trial and educational rights. 

2. INDUSTRIAL 

1. Congress should enact effective laws to abolish child labor, to fix mini¬ 
mum wages, based on an ascertained cost of a decent standard of life, to protect 
migratory and unemployed workers from oppression, to abolish detective and 
strike-breaking agencies and to establish a shorter work-day in keeping with 
increased industrial productivity. 

3. POLITICAL 

1. The constitutional freedom of speech, press and assembly should be re¬ 
stored by repealing the Espionage Law and all other repressive legislation, and 
by prohibiting the executive usurpation of authority. 

2. All prosecutions under the Espionage Law should be discontinued, and 
all persons serving prison sentences for alleged offenses growing out of religious 
beliefs, political views or industrial activities should be fully pardoned and 
immediately released. 

3. No alien should be deported from the United States on account of his 
political views or participation in labor struggles, nor in any event without 
proper trial on specific charges. The arbitrary power to deport aliens by admin¬ 
istrative order should be repealed. 

4. The power of the courts to restrain workers in their struggles against 
employers by the Writ of Injunction or otherwise, and their power to nullify 
congressional legislation, should be abrogated. 


SOCIALIST PLATFORM 1920 


77 


5. Federal judges should be elected by the people and be subject to recall. 

6. The President and the Vice-President of the United States should be 
elected by direct popular election, and be subject to recall. All members of the 
Cabinet should be elected by Congress and be responsible at all times to the vote 
thereof. 

7. Suffrage should be equal and unrestricted in fact as well as in law for 
all men and women throughout the nation. 

8. Because of the strict residential qualification of suffrage in this country, 
millions of citizens are disfranchised in every election; adequate provision 
should be made for the registration and voting of migratory voters. 

9. The Constitution of the United States should be amended to strengthen 
the safeguards of civil and political liberty, and to remove all obstacles to indus¬ 
trial and social reform, and reconstruction, including the changes enumerated in 
this program, in keeping with the will and interest of the people. It should be 
made amendable by a majority of the voters of the nation upon their own initia¬ 
tive, or upon the initiative of Congress. 

4. FOREIGN RELATIONS 

1. All claims of the United States against allied countries for loans made 
during the war should be cancelled upon the understanding that all war debts 
among such countries shall likewise be cancelled. The largest possible credit 
in food, raw material and machinery should be extended to the stricken nations 
of Europe in order to help them rebuild the ruined world. 

2. The Government of the United States should initiate a movement to 
dissolve the mischievous organization called the “League of Nations” and to 
create an international parliament, composed of democratically elected represen¬ 
tatives of all nations of the world, based upon the recognition of their equal 
rights, the principles of self-determination, the right to national existence of 
colonies and other dependencies, freedom of international trade and trade routes 
by land and sea, and universal disarmament, and be charged with revising the 
Treaty of Peace on the principles of justice and conciliation. 

3. The United States should immediately make peace with the Central 
Powers and open commercial and diplomatic relations with Russia under the 
Soviet Government. It should promptly recognize the independence of the Irish 
Republic. 

4. The United States should make and proclaim it a fixed principle in its 
foreign policy that American capitalists, who acquire concessions or make in¬ 
vestments in foreign countries, do so at their own risk, and under no circum¬ 
stances should our government enter into diplomatic negotiations or contro¬ 
versies or resort to armed conflicts on account of foreign property-claims of 
American capitalists. 


5, FISCAL 

1. All war debts and other debts of the Federal Government should im¬ 
mediately be paid in full, the funds for such payment to be raised by means of a 
progressive property tax, whose burdens should fall upon the rich and particu¬ 
larly upon great fortunes made during the war. 


78 


THE AMERICAN VOTER’S HANDBOOK 


2. A standing progressive income tax and a graduated inheritance tax 
should b'e levied to provide for all needs of the government, including the cost 
of its increasing social and industrial functions. 

3. The unearned increment of land should be taxed, all land held out of 
use should be taxed at full rental value. 


DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES 

Adopted by the National Convention of the Socialist Party, May 12, 1920 

The Socialist Party of the United States demands that the country and its 
wealth be redeemed from the control of private interests and turned over to the 
people to be administered for the equal benefit of all. 

America is not owned by the American people. Our so-called national 
wealth is not the wealth of the nation but of the privileged few. 

These are the ruling classes of America. They are small in numbers but 
they dominate the lives and shape the destinies of their fellow men. 

They own the people’s jobs and determine their wages; they control 
the markets of the world and fix the prices of farm products ; they own 
their own homes and fix their rents; they own their food and set its cost; 
they own their press and formulate their convictions ; they own the gov¬ 
ernment and make their laws; they own their schools and mould their minds. 

Around and about the capitalist class cluster the numerous and varied 
groups of the population, generally designated as the “middle classes.” They 
consist of farm owners, small merchants and manufacturers, professional and 
better paid employees. Their economic status is often precarious. They live 
in hopes of being lifted into the charmed spheres of the ruling classes. Their 
social psychology is that of retainers of the wealthy. As a rule they sell their gifts, 
knowledge and efforts to the capitalist interests. They are staunch upholders of 
the existing order of social inequalities. 

The bulk of the American people is composed of workers. Workers on the 
farm and in the factory, in mines and mills, on ships and railroads, in offices and 
counting houses, in schools and in personal service, workers of hand and brain, 
all men and women who render useful service to the community in the countless 
ramified ways of modern civilization. They have made America what it is. 
They sustain America from day to day. They bear most of the burdens of life 
and enjoy but few of its pleasures. They create the enormous wealth of the 
country but live in constant dread ; of poverty. They feed and clothe the rich, 
and yet bow to their alleged superiority. They keep alive the industries but 
have no say in their management. They constitute the majority of the people 
but have no control in the government. Despite the forms of political equality 
the workers of the United States are virtually a subject class. 

***** 

The Socialist Party is the party of the workers. It espouses their cause be¬ 
cause in the workers lies the hope of the political, economic and social redemp¬ 
tion of the country. The ruling class and their retainers cannot be expected to 



SOCIALIST PLATFORM 1920 


79 


change the iniquitous system of which they are the beneficiaries. Individual 
members of these classes often join in the struggle against the capitalist order 
from motives of personal idealism, but whole classes have never been known to 
abdicate their rule and surrender their privileges for the mere sake of social 
justice. The workers alone have a direct and compelling interest in abolishing 
th present profit system. 

The Socialist Party desires the workers of America to take the economic and 
political power from the capitalist class, not that they may establish themselves 
as a new ruling class, but in order that all class divisions may be abolished 
forever. 

sfc sf: 

To perform this supreme social task the workers must be organized as a 
political party of their own. They must realize that both the Republican and 
Democratic parties are the political instruments of the master classes, and 
equally pledged to uphold and perpetuate capitalism. They must be trained to 
use the ballot box to vote out the tools of the capitalist and middle classes and 
to vote in representatives of the workers. A true political party of labor must 
be founded upon the uncompromising demand for the complete socialization of 
the industries. That means doing away with the private ownership of the 
sources and instruments of wealth production and distribution, abolishing work¬ 
less incomes in the form of profits, interest or rents, transforming the whole 
able-bodied population of the country into useful workers, and securing to all 
workers the full social value of their work. 

^{c 

The Socialist Party is such a political party. It strives by means of political 
methods, including the action of its representatives in the legislatures and other 
public offices to force the enactment of such measures as will immediately benefit 
the workers, raise their standard of life, increase their power and stiffen their 
resistance to capitalist aggression. Its purpose is to secure a majority in Con¬ 
gress *and in every state legislature, to win the principal executive and judicial 
offices, to become the dominant and controlling party, and when in power to 
transfer to the ownership by the people of industries, beginning with those of a 
public character, such as banking, insurance, mining, transportation and com¬ 
munication, as well as the trustified industries, and extending the process to all 
other industries susceptible of collective ownership, as rapidly as their physical 
conditions will permit. 

It also proposes to socialize the system of public education and health and all 
activities and institutions vitally affecting the public needs and welfare including 
dwelling houses. 

The Socialist program advocates the socialization of all large farming es¬ 
tates and land used for industrial and public purposes- as well as all instrumen¬ 
talities for storing, preserving and marketing farm products. It does not contem¬ 
plate interference with the private possession of land actually used and cultivated 
by occupants. 

The Socialist Party, when in political control, proposes to reorganize the 
government in form and substance so as to change it from a tool of repression 
into an instrument of social and industrial service. It affirms a fundamental 


80 


THE AMERICAN VOTER’S HANDBOOK 


truth of the American Declaration of Independence, that when a government 
fails to serve us, or becomes destructive of human happiness, “It is the right 
of the people to alter or abolish it and to institute a new government, laying its 
foundations on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to 
them shall seem most likely to affect their safety and happiness.” 

* * * * 

The Socialist transformation cannot be successfully accomplished by politi¬ 
cal victories alone. The reorganization of the industries upon the basis of social 
operation and co-operative effort will require an intelligent and disciplined 
working class, skilled not only in the processes of physical work but also in the 
technical problems of management. This indispensable training the workers can 
best gain as a result of their constant efforts to secure a greater share in the 
management of industries through their labor unions and co-operatives. These- 
economic organizations of labor have also an immediate practice and vital 
function. Their daily struggles for betterment in the sphere of their respective 
industries supplement and reinforce the political efforts of the Socialist Party in 
the same general direction, and their great economic power may prove a formid¬ 
able weapon for safeguarding the political rights of labor. 

The Socialist Party does not intend to interfere in the internal affairs of 
labor unions, but will always support them in their economic struggle. In 
order however, that such struggle might attain the maximum of efficiency and 
success, the Socialists favor the organization of workers along lines of industrial 
unionism, in closest organic co-operation, as an organized working-class body. 

The Socialist Party does not seek to interfere with the institution of the 
family as such, but promises to make family life fuller, nPbler and happier by 
removing the sordid factor of economic dependence of woman on man, and by 
assuring to all members of the family greater material security and more leisure 
to cultivate the joys of the home. 

The Socialist Party adheres strictly to the principle of complete separation 
of state and church. It recognizes the right of voluntary communities of citi¬ 
zens to maintain religious institutions and to worship according to the dictates of 
their conscience. 

The Socialist Party seeks to attain its end by orderly and constitutional 
methods, so long as the ballot box, the right of representation and civil liber¬ 
ties are maintained. Violence is not the weapon of the Socialist Party but of 
the short-sighted representatives of the ruling classes, who stupidly believe that 
social movements and ideals can be destroyed by brutal physical repression. 
The Socialists depend upon education and organization of the masses. 

m 

>|< ifc 

The domination of the privileged classes has been so strong that they have 
succeeded in persuading their credulous fellow citizens that they, the despoilers 
of America, are the only true Americans ; that their selfish class interests are 
the sacred interests of the nation; that only those that submit supinely to their 
oppressive rule are loyal and patriotic citizens, and that all who oppose their 
exactions and pretensions are traitors to their country. 


SOCIALIST PLATFORM 1920 


81 


The Socialists emphatically reject this fraudulent notion of patriotism. 

The Socialist Party gives its service and allegiance to the mass of the Ameri¬ 
can people, the working classes, but this interest is not limited to America alone. 
In modern civilization the destinies of all nations are inextricably interwoven. 
No nation can be prosperous and happy while its neighbors are poor and miser¬ 
able. No nation can be truly free if other nations are enslaved. The ties of 
international interdependence and solidarity are particularly vital among the 
working classes. In all the advanced countries of the world the working classes 
are engaged in the identical struggle for political and economic freedom, and 
the success or failure of each is immediately reflected upon the progress and 
fortunes of all. 


\|* ^ 

The Socialist Party is opposed to militarism and to wars among nations. 
Modern wars are generally caused by commercial and financial rivalries and 
intrigues of the capitalist interests in different countries. They are made by 
the ruling classes and fought by the masses. They bring wealth and power to 
the privileged few and suffering, death, and desolation to the many. They cripple 
the struggles of the workers for political rights, material improvement and social 
justice and tend to sever the bonds of solidarity between them and their broth¬ 
ers in other countries. 


% jj; % >jc 

The Socialist movement is a world struggle in behalf of human civilization. 
The Socialist Party of the United States co-operates with similar parties in 
other countries, and extends to them its full support in their struggles, confident 
that the class-conscious workers all over the world will eventually secure the 
powers of government in their respective countries, abolish the oppression and 
chaos, the strife and bloodshed of international capitalism, and establish a feder¬ 
ation of Socialist republics, co-operating with each other for the benefit of the 
human race, and for the maintenance of the peace of the world. 


PLATFORM OF THE 
FARMER-LABOR PARTY OF THE 
UNITED STATES 1920 


PREAMBLE 

The American Declaration of Independence, adopted July 4, 1776, states 
that governments are instituted to secure to the people the rights of life, liberty 
and pursuit of happiness and that governments derive their just powers from 
the consent of the governed. 

Democracy cannot exist unless all power is preserved to the people. The 
only excuse for the existence of government is to serve, not to rule, the people. 

In the United States of America, the power of government, the priceless and 
inalienable heritage of the people, has been -stolen from the people—has been 
seized by a few men who control the wealth of the nation and by the tools of 
these men, maintained by them in public office to do their bidding. 

The administrative offices of the government and congress are controlled by 
the financial barons—even the courts have been prostituted—and the people as a 
result of this usurpation have been reduced to economic and industrial servitude. 

Under the prevailing order in the United States, wealth is monopolized by a 
few and the people are kept in poverty, while costs of living mount until the bur¬ 
den of providing the necessaries of life is well-nigh intolerable. 

Having thus robbed the people first of their power and then of their wealth, 
the wielders of financial power, seeking new fields of exploitation, have com¬ 
mitted the government of the United States, against the will of the people, to 
imperialistic policies and seek to extend these enterprises to such lengths that 
our nation today stands in danger of becoming an empire instead of a republic. 

Just emerging from a war which we said we fought to extend democracy to 
the ends of the earth, we find ourselves helpless while the masters of our govern¬ 
ment, who are also the masters of industry and commerce, league themselves 
with the masters of other nations to prevent self-determination by helpless peo¬ 
ple and to exploit and rob them, notwithstanding that we committed ourselves 
to guaranty of self-government for all such peoples. 

Following the greedy spectacle of the peace conference, the money-masters 
feared an awakening of the people which threatened to exact for mankind those 
benefits for which the war was said to have been fought. Thereupon these mas¬ 
ters, in the United States, through their puppets in public office, in an effort to 
stifle free discussion, stripped from the inhabitants of this land, rights and liber¬ 
ties guaranteed under American doctrines on which this country was founded 
and guaranteed also by the federal constitution. 

These rights and liberties must be restored to the people. 

Afore than this must be done. All power to govern this nation must be re¬ 
stored to the people. This involves industrial freedom, for political democracy 
is only an empty phrase without industrial democracy. This can not be done by 



FARMER-LABOR PLATFORM 


83 


superficial, palliative measures such as are, from time to time, thrown as sops to 
the voters by the Republican and Democrat parties. Patch-work cannot repair 
the destruction of democracy wrought by these two old parties. Reconstruction 
is necessary. 

The invisible government of the United States maintains the two old parties 
to confuse the voters with false issues. These parties, therefore can not seriously 
attempt reconstruction, which, to be effective, must smash to atoms the money 
power of the proprietors of the two old parties. 

Into this breach step the amalgamated groups of forward looking men and 
women who perform useful work with hand and brain, united in the Farmer- 
Labor Party of the United States by a spontaneous and irresistible impulse to 
do righteous battle for democracy against its despoilers, and more especially 
determined to function together because of the exceptionally brazen defiance 
shown by the two old parties in the selection of their candidates and the writing 
of their platforms in this campaign. This party, financed by its rank and file 
and not by big business, sets about the task of fundamental reconstruction of 
democracy in the United States, to restore all power to the people and to set up a 
governmental structure that will prevent seizure, henceforth, of that power by a 
few unscrupulous men. 

The reconstruction proposed is set forth in the following platform of 
national issues, to which all candidates of the Farmer-Labor Party are pledged. 

1. 100 PER CENT. AMERICANISM 

Restoration of civil liberties and American doctrines and their preserva¬ 
tion inviolate, including free speech, free press, free assemblage, right of asylum, 
equal opportunity, and trial by jury; return of the Department of Justice to the 
functions for which it was created, to the end that laws may be enforced without 
favor and without discrimination; amnesty for all persons imprisoned because 
of their patriotic insistence upon their constitutional guarantees, industrial ac¬ 
tivities or religious beliefs ; repeal of all so-called “espionage,” “sedition,” and 
“criminal syndicalist” laws ; protection of the right of all workers to strike, and 
stripping from the courts of powers unlawfully usurped by them and used to de¬ 
feat the people and foster big business, especially the power to issue anti-labor 
injunctions and to declare unconstitutional laws passed by Congress. 

To Americanize the federal courts, we demand that federal judges be elected 
for terms not to exceed four years, subject to recall. 

As Americanism means democracy, suffrage should be universal. We de¬ 
mand immediate ratification of the nineteenth amendment and full, unrestricted 
political rights for all citizens, regardless of sex, race, color or creed, and for 
civil service employees. 

Democracy demands also that the people be equipped with the instruments 
of the initiative, referendum and recall, with the special provision that war may 
not be declared expect in cases of actual military invasion, before referring the 
question to a direct vote of the people. 

2. ABOLISH IMPERIALISM AT HOME AND ABROAD 

Withdrawal of the United States from further participation (under the treaty 
of Versailles) in the reduction of conquered peoples to economic or political 
subjection to the small groups of men who manipulate the bulk of the world’s 


84 


THE AMERICAN VOTER’S HANDBOOK 


wealth; refusal to permit our government to aid in the exploitation of the weaker 
people of the earth by these men; refusal to permit use of the agencies of our 
government (through dollar diplomacy or other means) by the financial inter¬ 
ests of our country to exploit other peoples, including emphatic refusal to go to 
war with Mexico at the behest of Wall Street; recognition of the elected gov¬ 
ernment of the Republic of Ireland and of the government established by the 
Russian people; denial of assistance financial, military, or otherwise, for foreign 
armies invading these countries, and an embargo on the shipment of arms and 
ammunition to be used against the Russian or Irish people; instant lifting of the 
blockade against Russia; recognition of every government set up by people who 
wrest their sovereignty from oppressors, in accordance with the right of self- 
determination for all peoples; abolition of secret treaties and prompt publication 
of all diplomatic documents received by the State Department; withdrawal from 
imperialistic enterprises upon which we already have embarked (including the 
dictatorship we exercise in varying degrees over the Philippines, Hawaii, Haiti, 
the Dominican Republic, Porto Rico, Cuba, Samoa and Guam) ; and prevention 
of the imposition upon the people of the United States of any form whatever of 
conscription, military or industrial, or of military training. 

We stand committed to a league of free peoples, organized and pledged to 
destruction of autocracy, militarism and economic imperialism throughout the 
world and to bring about a world-wide disarmament and open diplomacy, to the 
end that there shall be no more kings and no more wars. 

3. DEMOCRATIC CONTROL OF INDUSTRY 

The right of labor to an increasing share in the responsibilities and manage¬ 
ment of industry; application of this principle to be developed in accordance 
with the experience of actual operation. 

4. PUBLIC OWNERSHIP AND OPERATION 

Immediate repeal of the Esch-Cummins Law; public ownership and opera¬ 
tion, with democratic control of all public utilities and natural resources, includ¬ 
ing stock-yards, large abattoirs, grain-elevators, water-power, and cold-storage 
and terminal warehouses ; government ownership and democratic operation of 
the railroads, mines and of such natural resources as are in whole or in part 
bases of control by special interests of basic industries and monopolies such as 
lands containing coal, iron, copper, oil, large water-power and commercial timber 
tracts ; pipe lines and oil tanks ; telegraph and telephone lines ; and establish¬ 
ment of a public policy that no land (including natural resources) and no patents 
shall be held out of use for speculation or to aid monopoly; establishment of 
national and state owned banks where the money of the government must, and 
that of individuals may, be deposited; granting of credit to individuals or groups 
according to regulations laid down by Congress which will safe-guard deposits. 

We denounce the attempt to scuttle our great government-owned merchant 
marine and favor bringing ocean-going commerce to our inland ports. 

5. PROMOTION OF AGRICULTURAL PROSPERITY 

Legislation that will effectively check and reduce the growth and evils of 
farm tenancy; establishment of public markets; extension of the federal farm 
loan system, making personal credit readily available and cheap to farmers; 
maintenance of dependable transportation for farm products; organization of a 


FARMER-LABOR PLATFORM 


85 


state and national service that will furnish adequate advice and guidance to 
applicants for farms and to farmers already on the land; legislation to promote 
and protect farmers’ and consumers’ co-operative organizations conducted for 
mutual benefit; comprehensive studies of costs of production of farm and staple 
manufactured products and uncensored publication of facts found in such studies. 

6. GOVERNMENT FINANCE 

We demand that economy in governmental expenditures shall replace the 
extravagance that has run riot under the present administration. The govern¬ 
mental expenditures of the present year of peace, as already disclosed, exceed 
$6,000,000,000—or six times the annual expenditures of the pre-war period. We 
condemn and denounce the system that has created one war-millionaire for every 
three American soldiers killed in the war in France, and we demand that this war- 
acquired wealth shall be taxed in such a manner as to prevent the shifting of the 
burden of taxation to the shoulders of the poor in the shape of higher prices and 
of increased living costs. 

We are opposed, therefore, to consumption taxes and to all indirect taxation 
for support of current operations of the government. For support of such current 
operations, we favor steeply graduated income taxes, exempting individual in¬ 
comes amounting to less than $3,000 a year, with a further exemption allowance 
of $300 for every child under 18 and also for every child over 18 who may be pur¬ 
suing an education to fit himself for life. In the case of state governments and of 
local governments we favor taxation of land value, but not of improvements or 
of equipment, and also sharply graduated taxes on inheritance. 

7. REDUCE THE COST OF LIVING 

Stabilization of currency so that it may not fluctuate as at present, carrying 
the standard of living of all the people down with it when it depreciates ; federal 
control of the meat packing industry; extension and perfection of the parcel post 
system to bring producer and consumer closer together; enforcing existing laws 
against profiteers, especially the big and powerful ones. 

8. JUSTICE TO THE SOLDIERS 

We favor paying the soldiers of the late war as a matter of right and not as 
charity, a sufficient sum to make their war-pay not less than civilian earnings. 
We denounce the delays in payment, and the inadequate compensation to disabled 
soldiers and sailors and their dependents, and we pledge such changes as will 
promptly and adequately give sympathetic recognition of their services and 
sacrifices. 

9. LABOR’S BILL OF RIGHTS 

During the years that Labor has tried in vain to obtain recognition of the 
rights of the workers at the hands of the government through the agencies of the 
Republican and Democrat parties, the principal demands of Labor have been 
catalogued and presented by the representatives of Labor, who have gone to con¬ 
vention after convention of the old parties—to Congress after Congress of old- 
party office holders. These conventions and sessions of Congress have from time 
to time, included in platforms and laws a few fragments of Labor’s program, 
carefully rewritten, however, to interpose no interference with the oppression of 
Labor by private wielders of the power of capital. It remains for the Farmer- 


86 


THE AMERICAN VOTER’S HANDBOOK 


Labor Party, the people’s own party, financed by the people themselves, to pledge 
itself to the entire Bill of Rights of Labor, the conditions enumerated therein to 
be written into the laws of the land to be enjoyed by the workers, organized or 
unorganized, without the amelioration of a single word in the program. Abraham 
Lincoln said: “Labor is the superior of Capital and deserves the highest con¬ 
sideration.” 

We pledge the application of this fundamental principle in the enactment and 
administration of legislation. 

(a) The unqualified right of all workers, including civil service employes, to 
organize and bargain collectively with employers through such representatives 
of their unions as they choose. 

(b) Freedom from compulsory arbitration and all other attempts to coerce 
workers. 

(c) A maximum standard 8-hour day and 44-hour week. 

(d) Old age and unemployment payments and workmen’s compensation to 
insure workers and their dependents against accident and disease. 

(e) Establishment and operation, through periods of depression, of gov- 

» 

ernmental work on housing, road-building, reforestation, reclamation of cut-over 
timber, desert and swamp lands and development of ports, waterways and water¬ 
power plants. 

(f) Re-education of the cripples of industry as well as the victims of war. 

(g) Abolition of employment of children under sixteen years of age. 

(h) Complete and effective protection for women in industry, with equal pay 
for equal work. 

(i) Abolition of private employment, detective and strikebreaking agencies 
and extension of the federal free employment service. 

(j) Prevention of exploitation of immigration and immigrants by employers. 

(k) Vigorous enforcement of the Seamen’s Act, and the most liberal inter¬ 
pretation of its provisions. The present provisions for the protection of seamen 
and for the safety of the traveling public, must not be minimized. 

(l) Exclusion from interstate commerce of the products of convict labor. 

(m) A federal department of education to advance democracy and effective¬ 
ness in all public school systems throughout the country, to the end that the 
children of workers in industrial and rural communities may have maximum 
opportunity of training to become unafraid, well-informed citizens of a free 
country. 


PLATFORM OF THE SINGLE TAX PARTY 

Adopted at Chicago, July 12, 1920 


We, the Single Tax Party, in National Convention .assembled, recognizing 
that the earth was created for all the people for all time, and that all have an 
equal and inalienable right to live on it and to produce from it the things that 
they require for their welfare and happiness ; 

Recognizing that all wealth, whatever its form, is produced only by labor 
applied to land, or to the products of land, and that the denial of the equal access 
to land is a denial of the right to produce and thus a denial of the right to life, 
liberty and the pursuit of happiness, as proclaimed by the Declaration of Inde¬ 
pendence ; 

Recognizing further that under our tax laws and our system of land tenure 
a small number of people own most of the land of our country, and exact tribute 
in the' form of ground rent from all the rest of the people in exchange for the 
mere permission to work and to produce, thus not only reaping where they have 
not sown but also holding idle the greater part of the earth’s surface and re¬ 
stricting the amount of wealth we otherwise easily could and would produce; 

Recognizing further that the value of the land, as expressed in its ground 
rentals or in its capitalized selling price, is a community value created by the 
presence of the people and, therefore, belongs to the people and not to the indi¬ 
vidual ; 

We, therefore, DEMAND that the full rental value of the land be collected 
by the Government instead of all taxes, and that all buildings, implements and im¬ 
provements on land, all industry, thrift and enterprise, all wages, salaries, in¬ 
comes, and every product of labor be entirely exempt from taxation. 

And we pledge ourselves that, if entrusted with the power to do so, we will 
express in law and enforce to the utmost such measures as will make effective 
these demands, to the end that involuntary poverty and want may be abolished 
and economic and civic freedom for all be assured. 



DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 

In Congress, July 4, 1776. 


A DECLARATION BY THE REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED 
STATES OF AMERICA, IN CONGRESS 1 ASSEMBLED. 

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to 
dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to as¬ 
sume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the 
laws of nature and of nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions 
of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the 
separation. 

We hold these truths to be self-evident:—-That all men are created equal; 
that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that 
among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That, to secure these 
rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the 
consent of the governed; that, whenever any form of government becomes de¬ 
structive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to 
institute a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organ¬ 
izing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their 
safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate, that governments long es¬ 
tablished should not be changed for light and transient causes ; and accordingly 
all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer while evils 
are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are 
accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invar¬ 
iably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, 


1 The First Continental or General Congress met in Carpenters’ Hall, Philadelphia, Sep¬ 
tember 5, 1774. It consisted of forty-four delegates, representing eleven of the thirteen 
colonies. Later, eleven more delegates took their seats, and all of the colonies were repre¬ 
sented except Georgia, which promised to concur with “her sister colonies” in their effort to 
maintain their rights as English subjects. Peyton Randolph of Virginia was elected Presi¬ 
dent of the Congress. Among the distinguished men who had assembled there, were Washing¬ 
ton, Patrick Henry, Richard Henry Lee, John Dickinson, William Livingston, John Jay, 
John Adams, Samuel Adams, Roger Sherman, and the Rutledges of South Carolina. 

On the 14th of October, the Congress adopted a Declaration of Colonial Rights. On the 
26th, a Petition to the King, asking the redress of their wrongs, was drawn up. 

The Second Continental Congress (at which Georgia was represented), met in Philadel¬ 
phia, in the State Plouse (Independence Hall), May 10, 1775. A second Petition to the King 
was adopted, and Washington was appointed commander-in-chief of the Continental Army, 
though Congress still denied any intention of separating from Great Britain, and earnestly ex¬ 
pressed a desire for the peaceful settlement of all difficulties. 

The King’s Proclamation, declaring the Colonies in rebellion, and calling for volunteers 
to force them to submit to taxation without representation, and other unjust measures, finally 
convinced the delegates to Congress of the impossibility of our continuing our allegiance to 
the English crown. 

On June 7, 1776, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia moved “That these United Colonies 
are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states.” John Adams of Massachusetts 
seconded the motion. 

Later, a committee of five—Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, John Adams of Massachusetts, 
Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, Roger Sherman of Connecticut, and Robert, R. Living¬ 
ston of New York—was appointed to draft the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson drew 
up the paper, though a few alterations were made in it by the committee and by Congress. 

It was adopted on the evening of July 4, 1776, and signed by John Hancock, President of 
Congress, and Charles Thomson, Secretary. On August 2, 1776, it was signed by the mem¬ 
bers, representing all the thirteen states. 




DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 


89 


it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide 
new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of 
these colonies ; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their 
former systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain 
is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the 
establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts 
be submitted to a candid world. 

He has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome and necessary for the 
public good. 

He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing im¬ 
portance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained; 
and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. 

He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts 
of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the 
legislature—$ right inestimable to them, and formidable to tyrants only. 

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, 
and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of 
fatiguing them into compliance with his measure. 

He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing, with manly 
firmness, his invasions on the rights of the people. 

He has refused, for a long time after such dissolutions, to cause others to be 
elected, whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned 
to the people at large for their exercise; the State remaining, in the mean time, 
exposed to all the dangers of invasions from without, and convulsions within. 

He has endeavored to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose 
obstructing the laws for the naturalization of foreigners ; refusing to pass others 
to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropria¬ 
tions of lands. 

He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to 
laws for establishing judiciary powers. 

He has made judges dependent on his will alone for the tenure of their offices, 
and the amount and payment of their salaries. 

He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers 
to harass our people and eat out their substance. 

He has kept among us in times of peace, standing armies, without the consent 
of our legislatures. 

He has affected to render the military independent of, and superior to, the 
civil power. 

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our 
constitutions, and unacknowledged by our laws ; giving his assent to their acts 
of pretended legislation : 

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us ; 

For protecting them, by a mock trial, from punishment for any murders 
which they should commit on the inhabitants of these States; 

For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world; 

For imposing taxes on us without our consent; 

For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury; 

For transporting us beyond seas, to be tried for pretended offences; 


90 


THE AMERICAN VOTER’S HANDBOOK 


For abolishing the free system, of English laws in a neighboring province., 
establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries, so as 
to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same abso¬ 
lute rule into these colonies ; 

For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and alter¬ 
ing, fundamentally, the forms of our governments ; 

For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with 
power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. 

He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection, and 
waging war against us. 

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and de¬ 
stroyed the lives of our people. 

He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to com¬ 
plete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circum¬ 
stances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, 
and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation. 

He has constrained our fellow-citizens, taken captive on the high seas, to bear 
arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and 
brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands. 

He has excited domestic insurrection among us, and has endeavored to bring 
on the inhabitants of our frontiers the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule 
of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions. 

In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most 
humble terms; our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated in¬ 
jury. A prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a 
tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. 

Nor have we been wanting in our attention to our British brethren. We have 
warned them, from time to time, of attempts by their legislature to extend an un¬ 
warrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances 
of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice 
and magnanimity; and we have conjured them, by the ties of our common kin¬ 
dred, to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connec¬ 
tions and correspondence. They, too, have been deaf to the voice of justice and 
consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity which denounces 
our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, 
in peace friends. 

We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in Gen¬ 
eral Congress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the 
rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name and by the authority of the good peo¬ 
ple of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies 
are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states ; that they are absolved 
from all allegiance to the British crown, and that all political connection between 
them and the state of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved; and 
that, as free and independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude 
peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and do all other acts and things 
which independent states may of right do. And, for the support of this declara¬ 
tion, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually 
pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor. 


DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 


91 


The foregoing Declaration was, by order of Congress, engrossed, and signed 
by the following members :— 


New Hampshire 

JOSIAH BARTLETT, 
WILLIAM WHIPPLE, 
MATTHEW THORNTON, 


JOHN HANCOCK. 

JAMES SMITH. 
GEORGE TAYLOR, 
JAMES WILSON, 
GEORGE ROSS. 


Massachusetts Bay 

SAMUEL ADAMS, 

JOHN ADAMS, 

ROBERT TREAT PAINE, 
ELBRIDGE GERRY. 

Rhode Island 

STEPHEN HOPKINS, 
WILLIAM ELLERY. 

Connecitcut 

ROGER SHERMAN, 
SAMUEL HUNTINGTON, 
WILLIAM WILLIAMS, 
OLIVER WOLCOTT. 

New York 

WILLIAM FLOYD, 
PHILIP LIVINGSTON 
FRANCIS LEWIS, 

LEWIS MORRIS. 

New Jersey 
RICHARD STOCKTON, 
JOHN WITHERSPOON, 
FRANCIS HOPKINSON, 
JOHN HART, 

ABRAHAM CLARK. 

Pennsylvania 

ROBERT MORRIS, 
BENJAMIN RUSH, 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, 
JOHN MORTON, 

GEORGE CLYMER, 


Delaware 

CAESAR RODNEY, 

GEORGE READ, 

THOMAS M’KEAN. 

Maryland 

SAMUEL CHASE, 

WILLIAM PACA, 

THOMAS STONE. 

CHARLES CARROLL, of Carrollton. 

Virginia 

GEORGE WYTHE, 

RICHARD HENRY LEE, 

THOMAS JEFFERSON, 
BENJAMIN HARRISON, 

THOMAS NELSON, JR., 

FRANCIS LIGHTFOOT LEE, 
CARTER BRAXTON. 

North Carolina 

WILLIAM HOOPER, 

JOSEPH HEWES, 

JOHN PENN. 

South Carolina 

EDWARD RUTLEDGE, 

THOMAS HAYWARD, JR., 
THOMAS LYNCH, JR., 

ARTHUR MIDDLETON. 

Georgia 

BUTTON GWINNETT, 

LYMAN HALL, 

GEORGE WALTON. 


RESOLVED, That copies of the Declaration be sent to the several assem¬ 
blies, conventions, and committees, or councils of safety, and to the several com¬ 
manding officers of the continental troops; that it be proclaimed in each of the 
United States, at the head of the army. 


CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES <» 


We, the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, 
establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defence, 
promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and 
our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of 
America. 

ARTICLE I. 

Section 1. All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Con¬ 
gress * 1 2 of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Repre¬ 
sentatives. 


The footnotes to the Constitution were taken from “The Leading Facts of American His¬ 
tory,” by D. H. Montgomery. Ginn-and Company, Publishers. Used by permission. 

1 Before the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776, tne Thirteen Colonies were subject 
to the king of Great Britain. From July 4, 1776, the United States of America were governed 
by a Continental or General Congress, until March 1, 1781, when the states adopted a con¬ 
stitution, called the “Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union between the States.” 
The Confederation had no -president, no supreme court; and consisted ot^ a single house of 
Congress, made up of delegates elected by the legislatures of the states. Under this constitu¬ 
tion Congress continued to govern—in sd far as a body with no practical authority can be 
said to govern—until March 4, 1789; but on May 14, 1787, a convention of delegates from 
all the states, except Rhode Island, met in Philadelphia “to iorm a more perfect union” (see 
the opening words of the Constitution above). The whole number of delegates that attended 
was fifty-five, but only thirty-nine signed the Constitution. The Articles of Confederation 
had been made by the States only; but as the opening words of the new compact declare, 
“We, the People,” made the Constitution. 

George Washington presided over the convention, and Benjamin Franklin. Robert Morris, 
James Madison, Rufus King, Roger Sherman, Alexander Hamilton, John Dickinson, Charles 
C. Pinckney, Charles Pinckney, J. Rutledge, and Gouverneur Morris, were among its distin¬ 
guished members. 

Madison, Hamilton, Washington, and Franklin took the leading part in the great work of 
drafting the new Constitution, and after its adoption by the convention, Madison and Hamil¬ 
ton used their influence, with great effect, to urge its ratification by the states, especially by 
New York (see their papers in the “Federalist”). 

After a stormy session of nearly four months, during which the convention several times 
threatened to break up in hopeless dispute, the Constitution was at last adopted. 

The first important question of debate was between the delegates from the small states 
and those from the large ones in regard to representation in Congress. If the representation 
rested wholly on population then the large states would, of course, have entire control. 

By a compromise or mutual concession it was finally agreed that Congress should consist 
of two houses: 1. The House of Representatives chosen by the people of the different states 
and representing them. 2. The Senate, or Upper House, consisting of two members from 
each state. In the Senate, therefore, the small states stana equal to the large ones. This 
arrangement satisfied all. 

The second great question was whether slaves should be counted in reckoning the number 
of the population with reference to representation in Congress. The North insisted that they 
should not; the South (where slaves were very numerous) that they should. The contest 
on this point was long and bitter. Finlaly it was agreed that three-fifths of the slaves 
should be counted with reference to both representation and taxation (though the slaves 
themselves were of course neither represented nor taxed). “Three-fifths of all other persons.” 
These “other persons” were slaves. 

The last question was in regard to commerce and to protection oi slaveholders. It was 
agreed that Congress should have the entire control of commerce (the states had had it be¬ 
fore). It was agreed that the importation of slaves might be prohibited after 1808. (These 
slaves are called “such persons.” The word slave does not occur in the Constitution). It 
was also agreed that runaway slaves should be returned to their owners. (“No person 
[i. e. slave] held to service,” etc.) 

If the compromise between the small states and the large, and the North and South, had 
not been made, the Constitution would have been rejected, and we should in all probability 
have split up into two or three hostile republics. 

While the members of the convention were signing the Constitution, the venerable Dr. 
Franklin, then aged eighty-one, rose and said: “I have often, in the course of the session 
and the vicissitudes of my hopes and fears as to its issue, looked at the sun [painted on the 
wall back of the president’s chair], without being able to tell whether it was rising or setting; 
but now, at length, I have the happiness to know that it is a rising, and not a setting sun.” 

The Constitution was then submitted to the thirteen states. In 1788 eleven had ratified 
it (Rhode Island and North Carolina declining then, though they gave their assent betore the 
close of 1790), and on March 4, 1789, the new Constitution went into operation, although, 
owing to delays, Washington was not inaugurated as the first President until April 30 of that 
year. 

2 The Speaker presides. Other officers are the clerk, sergeant-at-arms, door-keeper, etc. 




U. S. CONSTITUTION AND AMENDMENTS 


93 


Section 2. The House of Representatives shall be composed of members 
chosen every second year by the people of the several States, and the electors in 
each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numer¬ 
ous branch of the State Legislature. 

No person shall be a representative who shall not have attained to the age of 
twenty-five years, and been seven years a citizen of the United States, and who 
shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen. 

Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several 
States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective 
numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole number of free per¬ 
sons, including those bound to service for a term of years, and excluding Indians 
not taxed, three-fifths of all other persons. 1 The actual enumeration shall be 
made within three years after the first meeting of the Congress of the United 
States, and within every subsequent term of ten years, in such manner as they 
shall by law direct. The number of representatives shall not exceed one for every 
thirty thousand, but each State shall have at least one representative; and until 
such enumeration shall be made, the State of New Hampshire shall be entitled 
to choose three; Massachusetts, eight; Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, 
one; Connecticut, five; New York, six; New Jersey, four; Pennsylvania, eight; 
Delaware, one; Maryland, six; Virginia, ten; North Carolina, five; South Caro¬ 
lina, five; and Georgia, three. 

When vacancies happen in the representation from any state, the executive 
authority thereof shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies. 

The House of Representatives shall choose their Speaker 2 and other officers ; 
and shall have the sole power of impeachment. 

Section 3. The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two senators 
from each State, chosen by the Legislature thereof, for six years; and each sena¬ 
tor shall have one vote. 

Immediately after they shall be assembled in consequence of the first election, 
they shall be divided as equally as may be into three classes. The seats of the 
senators of the first class shall be vacated at the expiration of the second year; of 
the second class, at the expiration of the fourth year; of the third class, at the ex¬ 
piration of the sixth year, so that one-third may be chosen every second year; and 
if vacancies happen by resignation, or otherwise, during the recess of the Legis¬ 
lature of any State, the executive thereof may make temporary appointments until 
the next meeting of the Legislature, which shall then fill such vacancies. 

No person shall be a senator who shall not have attained to the age of thirty 
years, and been nine years a citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when 
elected, be an inhabitant of that State for which he shall be chosen. 

The Vice-President of the United States shall be president of the Senate, but 
shall have no vote, unless they be equally divided. 

The Senate shall choose their other officers, 3 and also a president pro tempore, 
in the absence of the Vice-President, or when he shall exercise the office of Presi¬ 
dent of the United States. 


1 “Persons” meaning’ slaves. This has been amended (by Amendments XIII and XIV.), 
and is no longer in force. 

2 Congress assembles on the first Monday in December; the session closes, by custom, at 
midnight on the 3d of the following March. Each Congress exists two years. 

3 The chief of these are the secretary, sergeant-at-arms, door-keeper, etc. 



94 


THE AMERICAN VOTER’S HANDBOOK 


The Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments : When sitting 
for that purpose, they shall be on oath or affirmation. When the President of the 
United States is tried, the Chief-Justice shall preside : and no person shall be con¬ 
victed without the concurrence of two-thirds of the members present. 

Judgment in cases of impeachment shall not extend further than to removal 
from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust, or 
profit under the United States ; but the party convicted shall nevertheless be liable 
and subject to indictment, trial, judgment, and punishment, according to law. 

Section 4. The times, places, and manner of holding elections for senators 
and representatives shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; 
but the Congress may at any time, by law, make or alter such regulations, except 
as to the places of choosing senators. 

The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and such meeting 
shall be on the first Monday in December, unless they shall by law appoint a dif¬ 
ferent day. 

Section 5. Each house shall be the judge of the elections, returns, and quali¬ 
fications of its own members, and a majority of each shall constitute a quorum to 
do business; but a smaller number may adjourn from day to day, and may be 
authorized to compel the attendance of absent members, in such manner, and 
under such penalties, as each house may provide. 

Each house may determine the rules of its proceedings, punish its members for 
disorderly behavior, and, with the concurrence of two-thirds, expel a member. 

Each house shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and from time to time pub¬ 
lish the same, excepting such parts as may in their judgment require secrecy, and 
the yeas and nays of the members of either house on any question shall, at the 
desire of one-fifth of those present, be entered on the journal. 

Neither house, during the session of Congress, shall, without the consent of 
the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other place than that in 
which the two houses shall be sitting. 

Section 6. The senators and representatives shall receive a compensation 1 
for their services, to be ascertained by law, and paid out of the treasury of the 
United States. They shall in all cases, except treason, felony, and breach of the 
peace, be privileged from arrest during their attendance at the session of their 
respective houses, and in going to and returning from the same; and for any 
speech or debate in either house, they shall not be questioned in any other place. 

No senator or representative shall, during the time for which he was elected, 
be appointed to any civil office under the authority of the United States, which 
shall have been created, or the emoluments whereof shall have been increased, 
during such time; and no person holding any office under the United States, shall 
be a member of either house during his continuance in office. 

Section 7. All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Repre¬ 
sentatives ; but the Senate may propose or concur with amendments as on other 
bills. 

Every bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Sen¬ 
ate, shall, before it become a law, be presented to the President of the United 
States; if he approve, he shall sign it, but if not, he shall return it, with his objec¬ 
tions, to that house in which it shall have originated, who shall enter the objec¬ 
tions at large on their journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If after such recon- 

1 $7,500 a year, with twenty cents for every mile necessarily travelled in coming to and 
returning from the Capital. Speaker of the House, $12,000. 



95 


U. S. CONSTITUTION AND AMENDMENTS 

sideration, two-thirds of that house shall agree to pass the bill, it shall be sent, 
together with the objections, to the other house, by which it shall likewise be re¬ 
considered, and if approved by two-thirds of that house, it shall become a law. 
But in all such cases the votes of both houses shall be determined by yeas and 
nays, and the names of the persons voting for and against the bill shall be entered 
on the journal of each house respectively. If any bill shall not be returned by the 
President within ten days (Sunday excepted) after it shall have been presented 
to him, the same shall be a law, in like manner as if he had signed it, unless the 
Congress by their adjournment prevent its return, in which case it shall not be a 
law. 

Every order, resolution, or vote to which the concurrence of the Senate and 
House of Representatives may be necessary (except on a question of adjourn¬ 
ment) shall be presented to the President of the United States ; and before the 
same shall take effect, shall be approved by him, or being disapproved by him, shall 
be re-passed by two-thirds of the Senate and House of Representatives, according 
to the rules and limitations prescribed in the case of a bill. 

Section 8. The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, 
imposts, and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defence and 
general welfare of the United States ; but all duties, imposts, and excises shall be 
uniform throughout the United States ; 

To borrow money on the credit of the United States; 

To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several States, and 
with the Indian tribes ; 

To establish a uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform laws on the sub¬ 
ject of bankruptcies throughout the United States; 

To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the 
standard of weights and measures ; 

To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and current 
coin of the United States ; 

To establish post-offices and post-roads ; 

To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing, for limited 
times, to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and 
discoveries; 

To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court; 

To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and 
offences against the law of nations ; 

To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules con¬ 
cerning captures on land and water; 

To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money to that use shall 
be for a longer term than two years ; 

To provide and maintain a navy; 

To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval 
forces; 

To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, sup¬ 
press insurrections and repel invasions. 

To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the militia, and for gov¬ 
erning such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United States, 
reserving to the States respectively the appointment of the officers, and the author¬ 
ity of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress ; 


96 


THE AMERICAN VOTER’S HANDBOOK 


To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever over such district 
(not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of particular States, and the 
acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the government of the United States, 
and to exercise like authority over all places purchased by the consent of the 
Legislature of the State in which the same shall be, for the erection of forts, mag¬ 
azines, arsenals, dockyards, and other needful buildings ;—And 

To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into exe¬ 
cution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in 
the government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof. 

Section 9. The migration or importation of such persons as any of the States 
now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress 
prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight, but a tax or duty may be 
imposed on such importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each person. 1 

The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when 
in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it. 

No bill of attainder or ex-post-facto law shall be passed. 

No capitation or other direct tax shall be laid, unless in proportion to the 
census or enumeration herein before directed to be taken. 

No tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported from any State. 

No preference shall be given by any regulation of commerce or revenue to the 
ports of one State over those of another; nor shall vessels bound to, or from, one 
State, be obliged to enter, clear, or pay duties in another. 

No money shall be drawn from the treasury but in consequence of appropria¬ 
tions made by law; and a regular statement and account of the receipts and ex¬ 
penditures of all public money shall be published from time to time. 

No title of nobility shall be granted by the Lffiited States : And no person 
holding any office of profit or trust under them, shall, without the consent of the 
Congress, accept of any present, emolument, office, or title, of any kind whatever, 
from any king, prince, or foreign state. 

Section 10. No State shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or confederation; 
grant letters of marque and reprisal; coin money; emit bills of credit; make 
anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts ; pass any bill of 
attainder, ex-post-facto law, or law impairing the obligation of contracts, or 
grant any title of nobility. 

No State shall, without the consent of the Congress, lay any impost or duties 
on imports or exports, except what may be absolutely necessary for executing its 
inspection laws ; and the net produce of all duties and impost, laid by any State 
on imports or exports, shall be for the use of the treasury of the United States ; 
and all such laws shall be subject to the revision and control of the Congress. 

No State shall, without the consent of Congress, lay any duty of tonnage, keep 
troops, or ships-of-war, in time of peace, enter into any agreement or compact 
with another State, or with a foreign power, or engage in war, unless actually in¬ 
vaded, or in such imminent danger as will not admit of delay. 

ARTICLE II. 

Section 1. The executive power shall be vested in a President of the United 
States of America. He shall hold his office during the term of four years, and, 
together with the Vice-President, chosen for the same term, be elected, as follows ; 

1 “Person” meaning slave; referring to the foreign slave-trade, abolished in 1808. 



U. S. CONSTITUTION AND AMENDMENTS 


97 


Each State shall appoint, in such manner as the Legislature thereof may di¬ 
rect, a number of electors, equal to the whole number of senators and representa¬ 
tives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress : but no senator or rep¬ 
resentative, or person holding an office of trust or profit under the United States, 
shall be appointed an elector. 

[The electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by ballot for two 
persons, of whom one at least shall not be an inhabitant of the same State with 
themselves. And they shall make a list of all the persons voted for, and of the 
number of votes for each; which list they shall sign and certify and transmit 
sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the president 
of the Senate. The president of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate 
and House of Representatives, open all the certificates, and the votes shall then 
be counted. The person having the greatest number of votes shall be the Presi¬ 
dent, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed; 
and if there be more than one who have such majority, and have an equal number 
of votes, then the House of Representatives shall immediately choose by ballot 
one of them for President; and if no person have a majority, then from the five 
highest on the list the said house shall, in like manner, choose the President. 
But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by States, the representa¬ 
tion from each State having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of 
a member or members from two-thirds of the States, and a majority of all the 
States shall be necessary to a choice. In every case, after the choice of the Presi¬ 
dent, the person having the greatest number of votes of the electors shall be the 
Vice-President. But if there should remain two or more who have equal votes, 
the Senate shall choose from them by ballot the Vice-President. 1 ] 

The Congress may determine the time of choosing the electors, and the day 
on which they shall give their votes; which day shall be the same throughout 
the United States. 2 3 

No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States at 
the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of Pres¬ 
ident ; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attain¬ 
ed to the age of thirty-five years, and been fourteen years resident within the 
United States. 

In case of the removal of the President from office, or of his death, resigna¬ 
tion, or inability to discharge the powers and duties of the said office, the same 
shall devolve on the Vice-President, and the Congress may by law provide for 
the case of removal, death, resignation, or inability, both of the President and 
Vice-President, declaring what officer shall then act as President; and such 
officer shall act accordingly until the disability be removed, or a President shall 
be elected. 

The President shall, at stated times, receive for his services a compensation' 1 
which shall neither be increased nor diminished during the period for which he 
shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that period any other 
emolument from the United States, or any of them. 


1 This paragraph in brackets has been set aside by the XII. Amendment. 

2 The electors are chosen on the Tuesday following tbe first Monday in November, next 
before the expiration of a presidential term. They vote (by Act of Congress of Feb. 3, 1887) 
on the second Monday in January following, for President and Vice-President. Tne votes 
are counted, and declared in Congress on the second Wednesday of the next February 

3 The President now receives $75,000 a year; the Vice-President, $12,000. Previous to 
1873 the President received but $ 25,000 a year. 



98 


THE AMERICAN VOTER’S HANDBOOK 


Before he enter on the execution of his office, he shall take the following oath 
or affirmation :—“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute 
the office of President of the United States, and will, to the best of my ability, pre¬ 
serve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.” 

Section 2. The President shall be commander-in-chief of the army and navy 
of the United States, and of the militia of the several States, when called into the 
actual service of the United States; he may require the opinion, in writing, of the 
principal officer in each of the executive departments, upon any subject relating to 
the duties of their respective offices; and he shall have power to grant reprieves 
and pardons for offences against the United States, except in cases of impeach¬ 
ment. 

He shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to 
make treaties, provided two-thirds of the senators present concur; and he shall 
nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate shall appoint am¬ 
bassadors, other public ministers and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and 
all other officers of the United States, whose appointments are not herein other¬ 
wise provided for, and which shall be established by law : but the Congress may 
by law vest the appointment of such inferior officers, as they think proper, in the 
President alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads of departments. 

The President shall have power to fill up all vacancies that may happen dur¬ 
ing the recess of the Senate, by granting commissions which shall expire at the 
end of their next session. 

Section 3. He shall from time to time give to the Congress information 1 of 
the state of the Union, and recommend to their consideration such measures as he 
shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on extraordinary occasions, convene 
both houses, or either of them, and in case of disagreement between them with 
respect to the time of adjournment, he may adjourn them to such time as he shall 
think proper; he shall receive ambassadors and other public ministers; he shall 
take care that the laws be faithfully executed, and shall commission all the officers 
of the United States. 

Section 4. The President, Vice-President, and all civil officers of the United 
States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and' conviction of, 
treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors. 

ARTICLE III. 

Section 1. The judicial power of the United States shall be vested in one Su¬ 
preme Court, and in such inferior courts as the Congress may from time to time 
ordain and establish. The judges, both of the Supreme and inferior courts, shall 
hold their offices during good behavior, and shall, at stated times, receive for their 
services a compensation which shall not be diminished during their continuance 
in office. 

Section 2. The judicial power shall extend to all cases, in law and equity, 
arising under this Constitution, the laws of the United States, and treaties made, 
or which shall be made, under their authority;—to all cases affecting ambassa¬ 
dors, other public ministers, and consuls ;—to all cases of admiralty and maritime 
jurisdiction;—to controversies to which the United States shall be a party;—to 


1 The Presidents, beginning with Jefferson, have done this by messages sent to Congress. 
Washington, Adams, and Wilson read speeches or messages to that body. 



U. S. CONSTITUTION AND AMENDMENTS 


99 


controversies between two or more States;—between a State and citizens of 
another States ; l —between citizens of different States ;—between citizens of the 
same State claiming lands under grants of different States, and between a State, 
or the citizens thereof, and foreign states, citizens or subjects. 

In all cases affecting ambassacjors, other public ministers and consuls, and 
those in which a State shall be party, the Supreme Court shall have original juris¬ 
diction. In all other cases before mentioned, the Supreme Court shall have appel¬ 
late jurisdiction, both as to law and fact, with such exceptions and under such 
regulations as the Congress shall make. 

The trial of all crimes, except in cases of impeachment, shall be by jury; and 
such trial shall be held in the State where the said crimes shall have been com¬ 
mitted ; but when not committed within any State, the trial shall be at such place 
or places as the Congress may by law have directed. 

Section 3. Treason against the United States shall consist only in levying 
war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. 

No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two wit¬ 
nesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court. 

The Congress shall have power to declare the punishment of treason, but no 
attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood, or forfeiture, except during 
the life of the person attainted. 


ARTICLE IV. 

Section 1. Full faith and credit shall be given in each State to the public 
acts, records, and judicial proceedings of' every other State. And the Congress 
may by general laws, prescribe the manner in which such acts, records, and pro¬ 
ceedings shall be proved, and the effect thereof. 

Section 2. The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all privileges and 
immunities of citizens in the several States. 

A person charged in any State with treason, felony, or other crime, who shall 
flee from justice, and be found in another State, shall, on demand of the executive 
authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the 
State having jurisdiction of the crime. 

No person 2 held to service or labor in one State, under the laws thereof, es¬ 
caping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be dis¬ 
charged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party 
to whom such service or labor may be due. 

Section 3. New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; but 
no new State shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any other 
State; nor any State be formed by the junction of two or more States, or parts of 
States, without the consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as 
of the Congress. 

The Congress shall have power to dispose of and make all needful rules and 
regulations respecting the territory or other property belonging to the United 
States; and nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to prejudice any 
claims of the United States, or of any particular State. 


1 But compare Amendment XI. . . 

2 “Person” here means slave. This was the original Fugitive Slave Law. It now has no 
force, since, by Amendment XIII. to the Constitution, slavery is prohibited. 



100 


THE AMERICAN VOTER’S HANDBOOK 


Section 4. The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a 
republican form of government, and shall protect each of them against invasion, 
and on application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature 
cannot be convened) against domestic violence. 

$ 

ARTICLE V. 

The Congress, whenever two-thirds of both houses shall deem it necessary, 
shall propose amendments to this Constitution, or, on the application of the Legis¬ 
latures of two-thirds of the several States, shall call a convention for proposing 
amendments, which, in either case, shall be valid to all intents and purposes, as 
part of this Constitution, when ratified by the Legislatures of three-fourths of the 
several States, or by conventions in three-fourths thereof, as the one or the other 
mode of ratification may be proposed by the Congress; provided that no amend¬ 
ment which may be made prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight 
shall in any manner affect the first and fourth clauses in the ninth section of the 
first article; and that no State, without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal 
suffrage in the Senate. 

ARTICLE VI. 

All debts contracted, and engagements entered into, before the adoption of 
this Constitution, shall be as valid against the United States under this Constitu¬ 
tion, as under the confederation. 

This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be made in 
pursuance thereof; and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the au¬ 
thority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges 
in every State shall be bound thereby, anything in the Constitution or laws of any 
State to the contrary notwithstanding. 

The senators and representatives before mentioned, and the members of the 
several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, both of the 
United States and of the several States, shall be bound by oath or affirmation to 
support this Constitution; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualifi¬ 
cation to any office or public trust under the United States. 

ARTICLE VII. 

The ratification of the Conventions of nine States shall be sufficient for the es¬ 
tablishment of this Constitution between the States so ratifying the same. 

Done in convention, by the unanimous consent of the States present, the 
seventeenth day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand 
seven hundred and eighty-seven, and of the independence of the 
United States of America the twelfth. 

In witness whereof, we have hereunto subscribed our names. 

GEORGE WASHINGTON, 

President, and Deputy from Virginia. 


U. S. CONSTITUTION AND AMENDMENTS 


101 


New Hampshire 

JOHN LANGDON, 

NICHOLAS GILMAN. 

Massachusetts 

NATHANIEL GORHAM, 

RUFUS KING. 

Connecticut 

WILLIAM SAMUEL JOHNSON, 
ROGER SHERMAN. 

New York 

ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 

New Jersey 

WILLIAM LIVINGSTON, 
DAVID BREARLEY, 

WILLIAM PATERSON, 
JONATHAN DAYTON. 

Pennsylvania 

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, 
THOMAS MIFFLIN, 

ROBERT MORRIS 
GEORGE CLYMER, 

THOMAS FITZSIMONS, 

JARED INGERSOLL, 

JAMES WILSON, 
GOUVERNEUR MORRIS. 


Delaware 

GEORGE READ, 

GUNNING BEDFORD, JR., 

JOHN DICKINSON, 

RICHARD BASSETT, 

JACOB BROOM. 

Maryland 

JAMES M’HENRY, 

DANIEL OF ST. THOMAS JENIFER, 
DANIEL CARROLL. 

Virginia 

JOHN BLAIR, 

JAMES MADISON, JR. 

North Carolina 

WILLIAM BLOUNT, 

RICHARD DOBBS SPAIGHT, 

HUGH WILLIAMSON. 

South Carolina 

JOHN RUTLEDGE, 

CHARLES C. PINCKNEY, 

CHARLES PINCKNEY, 

PIERCE BUTLER. 

Georgia 

WILLIAM FEW, 

ABRAHAM BALDWIN. 


Attest: 


WILLIAM JACKSON, Secretary. 


102 


THE AMERICAN VOTER’S HANDBOOK 


AMENDMENTS 

TO THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES, RATIFIED 
ACCORDING TO THE PROVISIONS OF THE FIFTH ARTICLE 
OF THE FOREGOING CONSTITUTION. 


Article l. 1 —Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of re¬ 
ligion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, 
or of the press ; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition 
the government for redress of grievances. 

Article II.—A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free 
State the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. 

Article III.—No soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered in any house, 
without the consent of the owner; nor in time of war but in a manner to be pre¬ 
scribed by law. 

Article IV.—The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, 
papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be vio¬ 
lated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or 
affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons 
or things to be seized. 

Article V.—No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise in¬ 
famous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in 
cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service 
in time of war and public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same 
offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any 
criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor to be deprived of life, liberty, 
or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for 
public use, without just compensation. 

Article VI.—In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right 
to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein 
the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously 
ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; 
to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for 
obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his 
defence. 

Article VII.—In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall 
exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact 
to a speedy and pbulic trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein 
tried by a jury shall be otherwise re-examined in any court of the United States 
than according to the rules of common law. 

Article VIII.—Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines im¬ 
posed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. 

Article IX.—The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not 
be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. 

Article X.—The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitu¬ 
tion, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or 
to the people. 

1 The first ten amendments were offered in 1789, and adopted before the clsoe of 1791. 
They were largely the work of James Madison. They were adopted, says Judge Story, in order 
to “more efficiently guard certain rights already provided for in the Constitution, or to pro¬ 
hibit certain exercises of authority supposed to be dangerous to the public interests.” 




U. S. CONSTITUTION AND AMENDMENTS 


103 


Article XI. 1 —The judicial power of the United States shall not be con¬ 
strued to extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against 
any of the United States by citizens of another State, or by citizens or subjects 
of any foreign state. 

Article XII. 2 —The electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote 
by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an 
inhabitant of the same State with themselves ; they shall name in their ballots 
the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as 
Vice-President; and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as 
President, and of all persons voted for as Vice-President, and of the number of 
votes for each, which list they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the 
seat of the government of the United States, directed to the president of the Sen¬ 
ate;—the president of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House 
of Representatives, open all the certificates, and the votes shall then be counted;— 
the person having the greatest number of votes for President, shall be the Presi¬ 
dent, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed; 
and if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the highest 
numbers not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as President, the House 
of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President. But in 
choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by States, the representation from 
each State having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member 
or members from two-thirds of the States, and a majority of all the States shall 
be necessary to a choice. And if the House of Representatives shall not choose a 
President whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the fourth 
day of March next following, then the Vice-President shall act as President, as 
in the case of the death or other constitutional disability of the President. The 
person having the greatest number of votes as Vice-President, shall be the Vice- 
President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors ap¬ 
pointed; and if no person have a majority, then from the two highest numbers on 
the/ list, the Senate shall choose the Vice-President; a quorum for the purpose 
shall consist of two-thirds of the whole number of senators, and a majority of the 
whole number shall be necessary to a choice. But no person constitutionally 
ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of 
the United States. 

Article XIII. 3 —Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except 
as a punishment for crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, 
shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. 

Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate 
legislation. 

Article XIV. 4 —Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United 
States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States 
and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law 
which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States ; 
nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due 


1 Proposed in 1794; adopted 1798. A number of states have, at different times, taken ad¬ 
vantage of this amendment to repudiate their debts. 

2 Adopted 1804. 

3 This confirmed the Proclamation of Emancipation; it was adopted in 1865. 

4 Adopted 1868. The object of sections 1 and 2 was to make the freedm^n (negroes), 
emancipated during the Civil War, citizens of the United States. 



104 


THE AMERICAN VOTER’S HANDBOOK 


process of law, nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection 
of the laws. 

Section 2. Representatives shall be appointed among the several States ac¬ 
cording to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in 
each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any elec¬ 
tion for the choice of electors for President and Vice-President of the United 
States, representatives in Congress, the executive or judicial officers of a State, 
or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabi¬ 
tants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United 
States, or in any way abrodged, except for participation in rebellion or other 
crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which 
the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens 
twenty-one years of age in such State. 

Section 3. No person shall be a senator or representative in Congress, or 
elector of President or Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under 
the United States, or under any State, who having previously taken an oath as a 
member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any 
State Legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support 
the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or re¬ 
bellion against the same,, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But 
Congress may, by a vote of two-thirds of each house, remove such disability. 

Section 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized 
by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services 
in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the 
United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred 
in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the 
loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations, and claims shall 
be held illegal and void. 

Section 5. Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, 
the provisions of this article. 

Article XV. 1 —Section 1. The rights of citizens of the United States to vote 
shall not be denied or abridged by the United States, or by any State, on account 
of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. 

Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate 
legislation. 

Article XVI. 2 —The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on 
incomes, from whatever sources derived, without apportionment among the sev¬ 
eral States, and without regard to any census or enumeration. 

Article XVII.—Section 1. The Senate of the United States shall be com¬ 
posed of two Senators from each State, elected by the people thereof, for six 
years; and each Senator shall have one vote. The electors in each State shall 
have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the 
State Legislatures. 

Section 2. When vacancies happen in the representation of any State in the 
Senate, the executive authority of such State shall issue writs of election to fill 
such vacancies : Provided, That the Legislature of any State may empower the 


1 Adopted 1870. Its object was to give the freedmen (negroes) the right to vote. 

2 The ratification of this Amendment was proclaimed by the Secretary of State, May 31, 



U. S. CONSTITUTION AND AMENDMENTS 


105 


Executive thereof to make temporary appointment until the people fill the vacan¬ 
cies by election as the Legislature may direct. 

Section 3. This amendment shall not be so construed as to affect the election 
or term of any Senator chosen before it becomes valid as part of the Constitution. 

Article XVIII. 1 —Section 1. After one year from the ratification of this arti¬ 
cle the manufacture, sale or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the 
importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from, the United States and 
all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby 
prohibited. 

Section 2. The Congress and the several States shall have concurrent power 
to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. 

Section 3. This article shall be inoperative, unless it shall have been ratified 
as an amendment to the Constitution by the Legislatures of the several States, as 
provided in the Constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission 
hereof to the States by the Congress. 

Article XIX. 2 —Section 1. The rights of citizens of the United States to vote 
shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account 
of sex. 

Section 2. Congress shall have power, by appropriate legislation, to enforce 
the provisions of this article. 

1 Official proclamation of the adoption of this Amendment by the required 36 States was 
made by the Secretary of State on January 29, 1919. 

2 The suffrage amendment resolution was passed by Congress on June 4, 1919. Its word¬ 
ing is as originally phrased by the pioneer suffragist, Susan B. Anthony, soon after the Civil 
War had freed and enfranchised the colored people. 


PROCLAMATION OF THE 19th AMENDMENT 

Bainbridge Colby, 

Secretary of State of the United States of America 

To all to Whom these Presents shall come, Greeting: 

Know Ye, That the Congress of the United States at the first session, Sixty- 
sixth Congress begun at Washington on the nineteenth day of May in the year 
one thousand nine hundred and nineteen, passed a Resolution as follows : to wit 

JOINT RESOLUTION 

Proposing an amendment to the Constitution extending the right of suffrage 

to women. 

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of 
America in Congress assembled (two-thirds of each House concurring therein), 
That the following article is proposed as an amendment to the Constitution, 
which shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part of the Constitution when 
ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States. 

“Article —. 

“The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or 
abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. 

“Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.” 
And, further, that it appears from official documents on file in the Depart- 
'ment of State that the Amendment to the Constitution of the United States pro- 




106 


THE AMERICAN VOTER’S HANDBOOK 


posed as aforesaid has been ratified by the Legislatures of the States of Arizona, 
Arkansas, California, Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, 
Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, 
Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Dakota, New York, 
Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, 
Texas, Utah, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming. 

And, further, that the States whose Legislatures have so ratified the said 
proposed Amendment, constitute three-fourths of the whole number of States in 
the United States. 

Now, therefore, be it known that I, Bainbridge Colby, Secretary of State of 
the United States, by virtue and in pursuance of Section 205 of the Revised 
Statutes of the United States, do hereby certify that the Amendment aforesaid 
has become valid to all intents and purposes as a part of the Constitution of the 
United States. 

In Testimony Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal 
of the Department of State to be affixed. 

Done at the City of Washington, this 26th day of August, in the 
[Seal.] year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and twenty. 


BAINBRIDGE COLBY. 


APPENDICES 





























V 






APPENDIX A 


1 ELECTORAL VOTES BY STATES 


Alabama . 12 

Arizona . 3 

Arkansas . 9 

California . 13 

Colorado . 6 

Connecticut . 7 

Delaware . 3 

Florida . 6 

Georgia .. 14 

Idaho . 4 

Illinois . 29 

Indiana . 15 

Iowa . 13 

Kansas . 10 

Kentucky . 13 

Louisiana . 10 

Maine . 6 

Maryland . 8 

Massachusetts . 18 

Michigan . 15 

Minnesota . 12 

Mississippi . 10 

Missouri . 18 

Montana . 4 

Nebraska . 8 


Nevada . 3 

New Hampshire . 4 

New Jersey . 14 

New Mexico . 3 

New York . 45 

North Carolina.I. 12 

North Dakota . 5 

Ohio . 24 

Oklahoma . 10 

Oregon . 5 

Pennsylvania . 38 

Rhode Island. 5 

South Carolina . 9 

South Dakota. 5 

Tennessee . 12 

Texas . 20 

Utah . 4 

Vermont . 4 

Virginia . 12 

Washington . 7 

West Virginia . 8 

Wisconsin . 13 

Wyoming . 3 

Total .531 


1 The Electoral College is made up of one Elector for each Congressman and Senator. It 
now numbers 531 members, making 266 necessary to a choice. 
























































APPENDIX B 


PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES 


1789-97 

1797-1801 

1801-09 

1809-17 

1817-25 

1825-29 

1829-37 

1837-41 

1841-45 

1845-49 

1849-53 

1853-57 

1857-61 

1861-65 

1865-69 

1869-77 

1877-81 

1881-85 

1885-89 

1889-93 

1893-97 

1897-1905 

1905-09 

1909-1913 

1913- 


George Washington. 

John Adams. 

Thomas Jefferson. 

James Madison. 

James Monroe. 

John Quincy Adams. 

Andrew Jackson. 

Martin Van Buren. 

William Henry Harrison (died 1841). 
John Tyler. 

James K. Polk. 

Zachary Taylor (died 1850). 

Millard Fillmore. 

Franklin Pierce. 

James Buchanan. 

Abraham Lincoln. 

Lincoln re-elected (died 1865). 
Andrew Johnson. 

Ulysses S. Grant. 

Rutherford B. Hayes. 

James A. Garfield (died 1881). 
Chester A. Arthur. 

Grover Cleveland. 

Benjamin Harrison. 

Grover Cleveland. 

William McKinley (died 1901). 
Theodore Roosevelt. 

Theodore Roosevelt. 

William Howard Taft. 

Woodrow Wilson. 



APPENDIX C 


“ MILESTONE DATES” IN U. S. HISTORY 


1606 First Charter of Virginia. 

1607 First Settlement in Virginia. 

1614 First Settlement in New York. 

1619 Negro Slavery introduced in Virginia. 

1620 First Settlement in Massachusetts. 

1626 Dutch Purchase Manhattan Island from the Indians. 

1639 Connecticut Constitution (the first written Constitution 
framed by the people in America). 

1664 Taking of New Amsterdam (New York). 

1774 The First Continental Congress meets at Philadelphia. 

1775 Beginning of the Revolutionary War. (Battle of Lexington 

April 19, 1775). 

1776 Declaration of Independence. 

1781 Formation of the Confederation. 

1783 Recognition of the Independence of the United States. 

1787 Constitutional Convention at Philadelphia. 

1788 The Constitution Ratified by Nine States. 

1789 Beginning of the Federal Government. 

1793 Invention of the Cotton Gin by Eli Whitney. 

1803 Purchase of Louisiana from France. 

1807 Invention of the Steamboat by Robert Fulton. 

1808 Importation of Slaves Forbidden. 

1812-14 War with England. 

1812-15 Disappearance of the Federalist Party. 

1819 Purchase of Florida from Spain. 

1820 The Missouri Compromise. 

1823 Promulgation of the Monroe Doctrine. 

1824 High Protective Tariff Established. 

1828-32 Formation of the Whig Party. 

1830 First Passenger Railroad built. 

1840 U. S. Treasury established. 





112 


THE AMERICAN VOTER’S HANDBOOK 


1840 National Nominating Conventions established. 

1844 First Electric Telegraph in operation. 

1845 Admission of Texas to the Union. 

1846 Howe invents the Sewing Machine. 

1848 Discovery of Gold in California. 

1846-48 Mexican War and Cession of California. 

1850 Passage of the Fugitive Slave Law. 

1852-56 Fall of the Whig Party. 

1854-56 Formation of the Republican Party. 

1857 Dred Scott Decision by U. S. Supreme Court. 

1858 First Atlantic Cable laid. 

1859 Discovery of Petroleum in Pennsylvania. 

1861-65 Civil War to Abolish Slavery. 

1869 First Trans-Continental Railroad Completed. 

1879 Specie Payments resumed. 

1890 Sherman Act prohibiting Trusts and Combinations. 

1898 War with Spain and Annexation of Hawaiian Islands. 

1899 Cession by Spain of Philippine Islands and Porto Rico. 

1904 Acquisition of the Panama Canal Zone. 

1917 United States entered the Great World War. 


\ 


APPENDIX D 


WITH OR WITHOUT RESERVATIONS? 


Following is the complete text of the much-cussed-and-discussed 
Teague of Nations compact and the Lodge Reservations, which seems 
to be the principal “bone of contention” between the two big dogs in 
this fight. 

This solemn covenant has already been duly signed by the author¬ 
ized representatives of the following countries :Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, 
British Empire (Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, India), 
Czecho-Slovakia, France, Guatemala, Italy, Japan, Poland, Peru, Siam, 
and Uruguay. All thirteen of these invited to join, have adhered, name¬ 
ly : Argentine Republic, Chile, Colombia, Paraguay, Persia, Spain, 
Denmark, The Netherlands, Norway, Salvador, Sweden, Switzerland, 
and Venezuela. 

A fair summing up of the case at present, as between the two 
major political parties on this issue would seem to be that “We’re 
damned if we do, or damned if we don’t.” 

As the club steward remarks: “Will you have yours straight, or 
mixed ?” 










































































































































\ 













COVENANT FOR THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 
AS FINALLY ADOPTED AT THE 
PLENARY SESSION 


PREAMBLE 

The high contracting parties, in order to promote international cooperation, 
to achieve international peace and security by the acceptance of obligations not 
to resort to war, by the prescription of open, just, and honorable relations be¬ 
tween nations, by the firm establishment of the understandings of international 
laws as the actual rule of conduct among governments and by the maintenance 
of justice and a scrupulous respect for all treaty obligations in the! dealings of 
organized peoples with one another, agree to this covenant of the league of 
nations. 

ARTICLE 1. 

The original members of the league of nations shall be those of the signatories 
which are named in the annex to this covenant and also such of those other States 
named in the annex as shall accede without reservation to this covenant. Such 
accessions shall be effected by a declaration deposited with the secretariat within 
two months of the coming into force of the covenant. Notice thereof shall be 
sent to all other members of the league. 

Any fully self-governing State, dominion, or colony not named in the annex 
may become a member of the league if its admission is agreed to by two-thirds 
of the assembly, provided that it shall give effective guaranties of its sincere 
intention to observe its international obligations and shall accept such regula¬ 
tions as may be prescribed by the league in regard to its military and naval forces 
and armaments. 

Any member of the league may, after two years’ notice of its intention so to 
do, withdraw from the league, provided that all its international obligations and 
all its obligations under this covenant shall have been fulfilled at the time of its 
withdrawal. 

ARTICLE 2. 

The action of the league under this covenant shall be effected through the 
instrumentality of an assembly and of a council, with a permanent secretariat. 

ARTICLE 3. 

The assembly shall consist of representatives of the members of the league. 

The assembly shall meet at stated intervals and from time to time as occasion 
may require, at the seat of the league or at such other place as may be decided 
upon. 

The assembly may deal at its meetings with any matter within the sphere 
of action of the league or affecting the peace of the world. 

At meetings of the assembly each member of the league shall have one vote, 
and may have not more than three representatives. 




116 


THE AMERICAN VOTER’S HANDBOOK 


ARTICLE 4. 

The council shall consist of representatives of the principal allied and asso¬ 
ciated powers, together with representatives of four other members of the league. 
These four members of the league shall be selected by the assembly from time to 
time in its discretion. Until the appointment of the representatives of the four 
members of the league first selected by the assembly, representatives of Belgium, 
Brazil, Spain, and Greece shall be members of the council. 

With the approval of the majority of the assembly, the council may name 
additional members of the league, whose representatives shall always be members 
of the council; the council with like approval may increase the number of mem¬ 
bers of the league to be selected by the assembly for representation on the council. 

The council shall meet from time to time as occasion may require, and at least 
once a year, at the seat of the league, or at such other place as may be decided 
upon. 

The council may deal at its meetings with any matter within the sphere of 
action of the league or affecting the peace of the world. 

Any member of the league not represented on the council shall be invited to 
send a representative to sit as a member at any meeting of the council during the 
consideration of matters specially affecting the interests of that member of the 
league. 

At meetings of the council each member of the league represented on the 
council shall have one vote, and may have not more than one representative. 

ARTICLE 5. 

Except where otherwise expressly provided in this covenant, or by the terms 
of the present treaty, decisions at any meeting of the assembly or of the council 

shall require the agreement of all the members of the league represented at the 
meeting. 

All matters of procedure at meetings of the assembly or of the council, in¬ 
cluding the appointment of committees to investigate particular matters, shall 
be regulated by the assembly or by the council, and may be decided by a ma¬ 
jority of the members of the.league represented at the meeting. 

The first meeting of the assembly and the first meeting of the council shall 
be summoned by the President of the United States of America. 

ARTICLE 6. 

The permanent secretariat shall be established at the seat of the league. 
The secretariat shall comprise a secretary general and such secretaries and staff 
as may be required. 

The first secretary general shall be thq person named in the annex; there¬ 
after the secretary general shall be appointed by the council with the approval 
of the majority of the assembly. 

The secretaries and the staff of the secretariat shall be appointed by the 
secretary general with the approval of the council. 

The secretary general shall act in that capacity at all meetings of the assem¬ 
bly and of the council. 

The expenses of the secretariat shall be borne by the members of the league 
in accordance with the apportionment of the expenses of the International Bureau 
of the Universal Postal Union. 


117 


COVENANT FOR LEAGUE OF NATIONS 
ARTICLE 7. 

The seat of the league is established at Geneva. 

The council may at any time decide that the seat of the league shall be es¬ 
tablished elsewhere. 

All positions under or in connection with the league, including the secretariat, 
shall be open equally to men and women. 

Representatives of the members of the league and officials of the league when 
engaged on the business of the league shall enjoy diplomatic privileges and im¬ 
munities. 

The buildings and other property occupied by the league or its officials or by 
representatives attending its meetings shall be inviolable. 

ARTICLE 8. 

The members of the league recognize that the maintenance of peace requires 
the reduction of national armaments to the lowest point consistent with national 
safety and the enforcement by common action of international obligations. 

The council, taking account of the geographical situation and circumstances 
of each State, shall formulate plans for such reduction for the consideration and 
action of the several Governments. 

Such plans shall be subject to reconsideration and revision at least every 
10 years. 

After these plans shall have been adopted by the several Governments, the 
limits of armaments therein fixed shall not be exceeded without the concurrence 
of the council. 

The members of the league agree that the manufacture by private enterprise 
of munitions and implements of war is open to grave objections. The council 
shall advise how the evil effects attendant upon such manufacture can be pre¬ 
vented, due regard being had to the necessities of those members of the league 
which are not able to manufacture the munitions and implements of war neces¬ 
sary for their safety. 

The members of the league undertake to interchange full and frank informa¬ 
tion as to the scale of their armaments, their military and naval programs, and 
the condition of such of their industries as are adaptable to warlike purposes. 

ARTICLE 9. 

A permanent commission shall be constituted to advise the council on the 
execution of the provisions of articles 1 and 8 and on military and naval ques¬ 
tions generally. 

ARTICLE 10. 

The members of the league undertake to respect and preserve as against ex¬ 
ternal aggression the territorial integrity and existing political independence of 
all members of the league. In case of any such aggression, or in case of any 
threat or danger of such aggression, the council shall advise upon the means by 
which this obligation shall be fulfilled. 

ARTICLE 11. 

Any war or threat of war, whether immediately affecting any of the members 
of the league or not, is hereby declared a matter of concern to the whole league, 
and the league shall take any action that may be deemed wise and effectual to 




118 


THE AMERICAN VOTER’S HANDBOOK 


safeguard the peace of nations. In case any such emergency should arise, the 
secretary general shall, on the request of any member of the league, forthwith 
summon a meeting of the council. 

It is also declared to be the friendly right of each member of the league to 
bring to the attention of the assembly or of the council any circumstance what¬ 
ever affecting international relations which threatens to disturb either interna¬ 
tional peace or the good understanding between nations upon which peace de¬ 
pends. 

ARTICLE 12. 

The members of the league agree that if there should arise between them any 
dispute likely to lead to a rupture, they will submit the matter either to arbitra¬ 
tion or to inquiry by the council, and they agree in no case to resort to war until 
three months after the award by the arbitrators or the report by the council. 

In any case under this article the award of the arbitrators shall be made 
within a reasonable time, and the report of the council shall be made within six 
months after the submission of the dispute. 

ARTICLE 13. 

The members of the league agree that whenever any dispute shall arise be-' 
tween them which they recognize to be suitable for submission to arbitration and 
which can not be satisfactorily settled by diplomacy, they will submit the whole 
subject matter to arbitration. Disputes as to the intrepretation of a treaty, as to 
any question of international law, as to the existence of any fact which if estab¬ 
lished would constitute a breach of any international obligation, or as to the 
extent and nature of the reparation to be made for any such breach, are de¬ 
clared to be among those which are generally suitable for submission to arbi¬ 
tration. 

For the consideration of any such dispute the court of arbitration to which 
the case is referred shall be the court agreed on by the parties to the dispute or 
stipulated in any convention existing between them. 

The members of the league agree that they will carry out in full good faith 
any award that may be rendered and that they will not resort to war against a 
member of the league which complies therewith. 

In the event of any failure to carry out such an award, the council shall pro¬ 
pose what steps should be taken to give effect thereto. 

ARTICLE 14. 

The council shall formulate and submit to the members of the league for 
adoption plans for the establishment of a permanent court of international jus¬ 
tice. The court shall be competent to hear and determine any dispute of an in¬ 
ternational character which the parties thereto submit to it. The court may also 
give an advisory opinion upon any dispute or question referred to it by the coun¬ 
cil or by the assembly. 

ARTICLE IS. 

If there should arise between members of the league any dispute likely to 
lead to a rupture, which is not submitted to arbitration in accordance with article 
13, the members of the league agree that they will submit the matter to the coun¬ 
cil. Any party to the dispute may effect such submission by'giving notice of the 
existence of the dispute to the secretary general, who will make all necessary 


COVENANT FOR LEAGUE OF NATIONS 


119 


arrangements for a full investigation and consideration thereof. For this pur¬ 
pose the parties to the dispute will communicate to the secretary general, as 
promptly as possible, statements of their case, with all the relevant facts and 
papers; and the council may forthwith direct the publication thereof. 

The council shall endeavor to effect a settlement of the dispute, and if such 
efforts are successful, a statement shall be made public giving such facts and ex¬ 
planations regarding the dispute, terms of settlement thereof as the council 
may deem appropriate. 

If the dispute is not thus settled, the council, either unanimously or by a ma¬ 
jority vote, shall make and publish a report containing a statement of the facts 
of the dispute and the recommendations which are deemed just and proper in 
regard thereto. 

Any member of the league represented on the council may make public a 
statement of the facts of the dispute and of its conclusions regarding the same. 

If a report by the council is unanimously agreed to by the members thereof 
other than the representatives of one or more of the parties to the dispute, the 
members of the league agree that they will not go to war with any party to the 
dispute which complies with the recommendations of the report. 

If the council fails to reach a report which is unanimously agreed to by the 
members thereof other than the representatives of one or more of the parties to 
the dispute, the members of the league reserve to themselves the right to take such 
action as they shall consider necessary for the maintenance of right and justice. 

If the dispute between the parties is claimed by one of them, and is/ found 
by the council, to arise out of a matter which by international law is solely within 
the domestic jurisdiction of that party, the council shall so report and shall make 
no recommendation as to its settlement. 

The council may in any case under this article refer the dispute to the assem¬ 
bly. The dispute shall be so referred at the request of either party to the dispute, 
provided that such request be made within 14 days after the submission of the 
dispute to the council. 

In any case referred to the assembly all the provisions of this article and of 
article 12, relating to the action and powers of the council, shall apply to the 
action and powers of the assembly, provided that a report made by the assembly, 
if concurred in by the representatives of those members of the league represented 
on the council and of a majority of the other members of the league, exclusive in 
each case of the representatives of the parties to the dispute, shall have the same 
force as a report by the council concurred in by all the members thereof other 
than the representatives of one or more of the parties to the dispute. 

ARTICLE 16. 

Should any member of the league resort to war in disregard of its cove¬ 
nants under articles 12, 13 ! , or 15, it shall ipso facto be deemed to have com¬ 
mitted an act of war against all other members of the league, which hereby un¬ 
dertake immediately to subject it to the severance of all trade or financial rela¬ 
tions, the prohibition of all intercourse between their nationals and the nationals 
of the covenant-breaking State and the prevention of all financial, commercial, 
or personal intercourse between the nationals of the covenant-breaking State 
and the nationals of any other State, whether a member of the league or not. 



120 


THE AMERICAN VOTER’S HANDBOOK 


It shall be the duty of the council in such case to recommend to the several 
Governments concerned what effective military or naval forces the members of 
the league shall severally contribute to the armed forces to be used to protect 
the covenants of the league. 

The members of the league agree, further, that they will mutually support 
one another in the financial and economic measures which are taken under this 
article, in order to minimize the loss and inconvenience resulting from the above 
measures, and that they will mutually support one another in resisting any special 
measures aimed at one of their number by the covenant-breaking State, and that 
they will take the necessary steps to afford passage through their territory to the 
forces of any of the members of the league which are co-operating to protect the 
covenants of the league. 

Any member of the league which has violated any covenant of the league may 
be declared to be no longer a member of the league by a vote of the council con¬ 
curred in by the representatives of all the other members of the league repre¬ 
sented thereon. 

ARTICLE 17. 

In the event of a dispute between a member of the league and a State which 
is not a member of the league, or between States not members of the league, the 
State or States not members of the league shall be invited to accept the obliga¬ 
tions of membership in the league for the purposes of such dispute, upon such 
conditions as the council may deem just. If such invitation is accepted, the pro¬ 
visions of articles 12 to 16, inclusive, shall be applied with such modifications as 
may be deemed necessary by the council. 

Upon such invitation being given, the council shall immediately institute an 
inquiry into the circumstances of the dispute and recommend such action as may 
seem best and most effectual in the circumstances. 

If a State so invited shall refuse to accept the obligations of membership 
in the league for the purposes of such dispute, and shall resort to war against 
a member of the league, the provisions of article 16 shall be applicable as against 
the State taking such action. 

If both parties to the dispute, when so invited refuse to accept the obligations 
of membership in the league for the purposes of such dispute, the council may 
take such measures and make such recommendations as will prevent hostilities 
and will result in the settlement of the dispute. 

ARTICLE 18. 

Every treaty or international engagement entered into hereafter by any mem¬ 
ber of the league shall be forthwith registered with the secretariat and shall as 
soon as possible be published by it. No such treaty or intentional engagement 
shall be binding until so registered. 

ARTICLE 19. 

The assembly may from time to time advise the reconsideration by members 
of the league of treaties which have become inapplicable, and the consideration 
of international conditions whose continuance might endanger the peace of the 
world. 

ARTICLE 20. 

The members of the league severally agree that this covenant is accepted 
as abrogating all obligations or understandings inter se which are inconsistent 


COVENANT FOR LEAGUE OF NATIONS 


121 


with the terms thereof, and solemnly undertake that they will not hereafter enter 
into any engagements inconsistent with the terms thereof. 

In case any member of the league shall, before becoming a member of the 
league, have undertaken any obligations inconsistent with the terms of this cove¬ 
nant, it shall be the duty of such member to take immediate steps to procure its 
release from such obligations. 


ARTICLE 21. 

Nothing in this covenant shall be deemed to affect the validity of interna¬ 
tional engagements, such as treaties of arbitration or regional understandings 
like the Monroe doctrine for securing the maintenance of peace. 

♦ 

ARTICLE 22. 

To those colonies and territories which as a consequence of the late war 
have ceased to be under the sovereignty of the States which' formerly governed 
them and which are inhabited by peoples not yet able to stand by themselves 
under the strenuous conditions of the modern world there should be applied the 
principle that the well-being and development of such peoples form a sacred 
trust of civilization and that securities for the performance of this trust should 
be embodied in this covenant. , 

The best method of giving practicable effect to this principle is that the 
tutelage of such peoples should be intrusted to advanced nations, who, by reasons 
of their resources, their experience, or their geographical position, can best un¬ 
dertake this responsibility, and who are willing to accept it, and that this tute¬ 
lage should be exercised by them as mandatories on behalf of the league. 

The character of the mandate must differ according to the stage of the de¬ 
velopment of the people, the geographical situation of the territory, its economic 
condition, and other similar circumstances. 

Certain communities formerly belonging to the Turkish Empire have reached 
a stage of development where their existence as independent nations can be 
provisionally recognized, subject to the rendering of administrative advice and 
assistance by a mandatory until such time as they are able to stand alone. The 
wishes of these communities must be a principal consideration in the selection 
of the mandatory. 

Other peoples, especially those of central Africa, are at such a stage that the 
mandatory must be responsible for the administration of the territory under 
conditions which will guarantee freedom of conscience and religion, subject 
only to the maintenance of public order and morals, the prohibition of abuses, 
such as the slave trade, the arms traffic, and the liquor traffic, and the preven¬ 
tion of the establishment of fortifications or military and naval bases and of 
military training of the natives for other than police purposes and the defense 
of territory, and will also secure equal opportunities for the trade and com¬ 
merce of other members of the league. 

There are territories, such as southwest Africa and certain of the South 
Pacific islands, which, owing to the sparseness of their population or their small 
size or their remoteness from the centers of civilization or their geographical 
contiguity to the territory of the mandatory and other circumstances, can be 
best administered under the laws of the mandatory as integral portions of its 
territory, subject to the safeguards above mentioned in the interests of the in- 


122 


THE AMERICAN VOTER’S HANDBOOK 


digenous populations. In every case of mandate the mandatory shall render to 
the council an annual report in reference to the territory committed to its charge. 

The degree of authority, control, or administration to be exercised by the 
mandatory shall, if not previously agreed upon by the members of the league, 
be explicitly defined in each case by the council. 

A permanent commission shall be constituted to receive and examine the 
annual reports of the mandatories and to advise the council on all matters re¬ 
lating to the observance of the mandates. 

ARTICLE 23. 

Subject to and in accordance with the provisions of international conventions 
existing or hereafter to be agreed upon, the members of the league 

(a) will endeavor to secure and maintain fair and humane conditions of 
labor for men, women, and children, both in their own countries and in all coun¬ 
tries to which their' commercial and industrial relations extend, and for that 
purpose will establish and maintain the necessary international organizations; 

(b) undertake to secure just treatment of the native inhabitants of terri¬ 
tories under their control; 

(c) will intrust the league with the general supervision over the execution 
of agreements with regard to the traffic in women and children and the traffic 
in opium and other dangerous drugs ; 

(d) will intrust the league with the general supervision of the trade in 
arms and ammunition with the countries in which the control of this traffic is 
necessary in the common interest; 

(e) will make provision to secure and maintain freedom of communications 
and of transit and equitable treatment for the commerce of all members of the 
league. In this connection the special necessities of the regions devastated dur¬ 
ing the war of 1914-1918 shall be in mind; 

(f) will endeavor to take steps in matters of international concern for the 
prevention and control of disease. 

ARTICLE 24. 

There shall be placed under the direction of the league all international 
bureaux already established by general treaties if the parties to such treaties 
consent. All such international bureaux and all commissions for the regulation 
of matters of international interest hereafter constituted shall be placed under 
the direction of the league. 

In all matters of international interest which are regulated by general con¬ 
ventions but which are not placed under the control of international bureaux or 
commissions, the secretariat of the league shall, subject to the consent of the 
council, and if desired by the parties, collect and distribute all relevant informa¬ 
tion, and shall render any other assistance which may be necessary or desirable. 

The council may include as part of the expenses of the secretariat the ex¬ 
penses of any bureau or commission which is placed under the direction of the 
league. 

ARTICLE 25. 

The members of the league agree to encourage and promote the establish¬ 
ment and co-operation of duly authorized voluntary national Red Cross organi¬ 
zations having as purposes the improvement of health, the prevention of disease 
and the mitigation of suffering throughout the world. 


COVENANT FOR LEAGUE OF NATIONS 


123 


ARTICLE 26. 

Amendments to this covenant will take effect when ratified by the members 
of the league whose representatives compose the council and by a majority of 
the members of the league whose representatives compose the assembly. 

No such amendment shall bind any member of the league which signifies its 
dissent therefrom, but in that case it shall cease to be a member of the league. 

ANNEX TO THE COVENANT 

1. Original members of the league of nations. 

Signatories of the treaty of peace: United States of America, Belgium. 
Bolivia, Brazil, British Empire, Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, 
India, China, Cuba, Ecuador, France, Greece, Guatemala, Haiti, Hedjaz, Hon¬ 
duras, Italy, Japan, Liberia, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Rou- 
mania, Serbia, Siam, Tczecho-Slovakia, Uruguay. 

States invited to accede to the covenant: Argentine Republic, Chile, Colom¬ 
bia, Denmark, Netherlands, Norway, Paraguay, Persia, Salvador, Spain, Sweden, 
Switzerland, Venezuela. 

2. First secretary general of the league of nations. 

The Honorable Sir James Eric Drummond, K. C.M. G., C. B. 


IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

March 11 (Calendar Day, March 18), 1920 

RESOLUTION OF RATIFICATION 

(LODGE RESERVATIONS) 


RESOLVED (two-thirds of the Senators present concurring therein), That 
the Senate advise and consent to the ratification of the treaty of peace with 
Germany concluded at Versailles on the 28th day of June, 1919, subject to the 
following reservations and understandings, which are hereby made a part and 
condition of this resolution of ratification, which ratification is not to take effect 
or bind the United States unless the instrument of ratification shall have been 
filed within sixty days after the adoption of the resolution of ratification by the 
Senate, nor until the said reservations and understandings adopted by the Senate 
have been accepted as a part and a condition of this resolution of ratification by 
the Allied and Associated Powers and a failure on the part of the Allied and 
Associated Powers to make objection to said reservations and understandings 
prior to the deposit of ratification by the United States shall be taken as a full 
and final acceptance of such reservations and understandings by said Powers : 

1. The United States so understands and construes Article 1 that in case 
of notice of withdrawal from the League of Nations, as provided in said article, 
the United States shall be the sole judge as to whether all its international obliga¬ 
tions and all its obligations under the said covenant have been fulfilled, and 
notice of withdrawal by the United States may be given by a concurrent resolu¬ 
tion of the Congress of the United States. 

2. The United States assumes no obligation to preserve the territorial in¬ 
tegrity or political independence of any other country by the employment of its 
military or naval forces, its resources, or any form of economic discrimination, 
or to interfere in any wav in controversies between nations, including all con¬ 
troversies relating to territorial integrity or political independence, whether 
members of the league or not, under the provisions of Article 10, or to employ the 
military or naval forces of the United States, under any article of the treaty for 
any purpose, unless in any particular case the Congress, which, under the Con¬ 
stitution, has the sole power to declare war or authorize the employment of the 
military or naval forces of the United States, shall, in the exercise of full lib¬ 
erty of action, by Act or Joint Resolution so provide. 

3. No mandate shall be accepted by the L T nited States under Article 22, 
Part 1, or any other provision of the treaty of peace with Germany, except by 
action of the Congress of the United States. 

4. The United States reserves to itself exclusively the right to decide what 
questions are within its domestic jurisdiction and declares that all domestic and 
political questions relating wholly or in part to its internal affairs, including im¬ 
migration, labor, coastwise traffic, the tariff, commerce, the suppression of traffic 
in women and children and in opium and other dangerous drugs, and all other 
domestic questions, are solely within the jurisdiction of the United States and 
are not under this treaty to be submitted in any way either to arbitration or to 
the consideration of the council or of the assembly of the League of Nations, or 
any agency thereof, or to the decision or recommendation of any other power. 



LODGE RESERVATIONS 


125 


5. The United States will not submit to arbitration or to inquiry by the as¬ 
sembly or by the council of the League of Nations, provided for in said treaty of 
peace, any questions which in the judgment of the United States depend upon or 
relate to its long-established policy, commonly known as the Monroe doctrine; 
said doctrine is to be interpreted 'by the United States alone and is hereby declared 
to be wholly outside the jurisdiction of said League of Nations and entirely un¬ 
affected by any provision contained in the said treaty of peace with Germany. 

6. The United States withholds its assent to Articles 156, 157, and 158, and 
reserves full liberty of action with respect to any controversy which may arise 
under said articles. 

7. No person is or shall be authorized to represent the United States, nor 
shall any citizen of the United States be eligible, as a member of any body or 
agency established or authorized by said treaty of peace with Germany, except 
pursuant to an Act of the Congress of the United States providing for his appoint¬ 
ment and defining his powers and duties. 

8. The United States understands that the reparation commission will regu¬ 
late or interfere with exports from the United States to Germany, or from Ger¬ 
many to the United States, only when the United States by Act or Joint Resolu¬ 
tion of Congress approves such regulation or interference. 

9. The United States shall not be obligated to contribute to any expenses of 
the League of Nations, or of the secretariat, or of any commission, or committee, 
or conference, or other agency, organized under the League of Nations or under 
the treaty or for the purpose of carrying out the treaty provisions, unless and until 
an appropriation of funds available for such expenses shall have been made by 
the Congress of the United States : Provided, That the foregoing limitation shall 
not apply to the United States proportionate share of the expense of the office 
force and salary of the secretary general. 

10. No plan for the limitation of armaments proposed by the council of the 
League of Nations under the provisions of Article 8 shall be held as binding the 
United States until the same shall have been accepted by Congress, and the United 
States reserves the right to increase its armament without the consent of the coun¬ 
cil whenever the United States is threatened with invasion or engaged in war. 

11. The United States reserves the right to permit, in its discretion, the 
nationals of a covenant-breaking State, as defined in Article 16 of the covenant 
of the League of Nations, residing within the United States or in countries other 
than such covenant-breaking State, to continue their commercial, financial, and 
personal relations with the nationals of the United States. 

12. Nothing in Articles 296, 297, or in any of the annexes thereto or in any 
other article, section, or annex of the treaty of peace with Germany shall, as 
against citizens of the United States, be taken to mean any confirmation, ratifi¬ 
cation, or approval of any act otherwise illegal or in contravention of the rights 
of citizens of the United States. 

9 

13. The United States withholds its assent to Part XIII (Articles 387 to 427, 
inclusive) unless Congress by Act or Joint Resolution shall hereafter make pro¬ 
vision for representation in the organization established by said Part XIII, and 
in such event the participation of the United States will be governed and con¬ 
ditioned by the provisions of such Act or Joint Resolution. 


126 


THE AMERICAN VOTER’S HANDBOOK 


14. Until part 1, being the covenant of the League of Nations, shall be so 
amended as to provide that the United States shall be entitled to cast a number 
of votes equal to that which any member of the league and its self-governing 
dominions, colonies, or parts of empire, in the aggregate shall be entitled to cast, 
the United States assumes no obligation to be bound, except in cases where Con¬ 
gress has previously given its consent, by any election, decision, report, or find¬ 
ing of the council or assembly in which any member of the league and its self- 
governing dominions, colonies, or parts of empire, in the aggregate have cast 
more than one vote. 

The United States assumes no obligation to be bound by any decision, report, 
or finding of the council or assembly arising out of any dispute between the 
United States and any member of the league if such member, or any self-govern¬ 
ing dominion, colony, empire, or part of empire united with it politically has voted. 

15. In consenting to the ratification of the treaty with Germany the United 
States adheres to the principle of self-determination and to the resolution of sym¬ 
pathy with the aspirations of the Irish people for a government of their own choice 
adopted by the Senate June 6, 1919, and declares that when such government is 
attained by Ireland, a consummation it is hoped is at hand, it should promptly 
be admitted as a member of the League of Nations. 


APPENDIX E 


1 BIBLIOGRAPHY 


A selected list of books on Civics, Political Science and the 
Historical Development of the State. 

The Spirit of Laws,—Montesquieu. 

Essay on Civil Government,—John Locke. 

The Social Contract,—Rousseau. 

The Federalist,—Hamilton, Jay, and Madison. 

Elliot’s Debates,—Jonathan Elliot. 

Democracy in America,—Alexis DeTocqueville. 

The Constitutional and Political History of the United States, 

—Dr. H. von Holst. 

The American Commonwealth,—James Bryce. 

A History of Political Theories,—W. A. Dunning. 

The Reconciliation of Government with Liberty,—John W. Burgess. 

An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States, 

—Chas. A. Beard. 

The Promise of American Life,—Herbert Croly. 

Public Opinion and Popular Government, —A. Lawrence Lowell. 

(This book discusses Initiative, Referendum and Recall) 

The Supreme Court and the Constitution,—Chas. A. Beard. 

The New Freedom,—Woodrow Wilson. 

American Government and Majority Rule,—Edward Elliott. 

Readings on Parties and Elections in the United States, 

—Chester Lloyd Jones. 

Democracy and the Party System in the United States, 

—M. Ostrogorski 

The American Doctrine of Judicial Supremacy,—Charles Grove Haines. 
Powers of the American People,—Masuji Miyakawa. 


1 This list of books is only suggestive ; there are many others that might have been added. 
The reader who browses among these will doubtless find his way without further aid in the field 
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